This week’s Sunday Gospel is Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds. It is a reflection on
how, in our lives, we experience both good and bad, consolation and desolation. It compares God to a gentle and prudent gardener who sometimes allows weeds to grow among the wheat to protect the wheat.
In our prayer lives, we experience many interior motions and emotions. These may come either from the spirit of God and bring consolation or from the evil spirit and bring desolation. These are the wheat and the weeds sown in our hearts. In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius offers guidance on recognising and responding to these different movements. Today, we reflect on how God sows good seeds in our hearts.
Consolation, or a movement of the good spirit, is characterised by bringing faith, hope and love. It is an interior joy that attracts one towards God and brings peace and tranquility. The good spirit gives us the courage and strength we need to walk the pilgrim journey of life and enters into us as gently as water is absorbed by a
sponge.
It must also be said that consolation does not always feel good. Sometimes it is a prick of the conscience,
that voice inside that tells us when and where we are going wrong. Sometimes when we are being stubborn in our relationship with God, the good spirit may hit us like water hitting a stone rather than a sponge. What characterises consolation is not that it feels comforting but that it leads us towards God.
We are invited to learn how to recognise these good seeds that God plants in our souls. We also need to practice looking for them. God is always at work in our lives, drawing us towards Godself. God is constantly sowing these seeds. Our job is to look for them, recognise them,
allow them to grow, and follow where they are leading us.
What seeds of faith, hope and love has God planted in your heart
recently? Give thanks for them this day, and ask God to give you the consolations that you need to keep following God faithfully.
Reflections by Sean van Staden
SJ
