The Wheat and the Cockle: Holiness and the Restoration of the Church
MASS Gaudeámus omnes
EPISTLE Apocalypse 7:2–12
GOSPEL St Matthew 5:1–12
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
There can be few Catholics seriously attentive to the condition of the Church today who have not experienced something of the bewilderment expressed by the servants in the parable appointed for our Proper Last Gospel. They look upon their master’s field, see the cockle growing amongst the wheat, and ask how such a thing could have happened. Had he not sown good seed? Where, then, had the weeds come from? And having discovered the mischief, they immediately propose to uproot them.
Our Lord’s answer deserves particular attention. The householder acknowledges that an enemy has done this. The weeds are neither harmless nor welcome; they threaten the harvest for which the field was cultivated. Nevertheless, the master refuses to permit his servants to undertake the final separation themselves. The harvest will come, and judgement will be accomplished in its appointed time.
There is much here which speaks to the crisis confronting the Catholic Church. For more than sixty years the faithful have witnessed profound disturbances in ecclesiastical life: confusion concerning doctrine, the abandonment of traditional devotional practices, the decline of religious observance, and the spectacle of ecclesiastical authorities appearing reluctant to proclaim teachings which their predecessors defended without hesitation. Churches have closed, religious communities have disappeared, and successive generations have grown up scarcely acquainted with the religion of their ancestors. More distressing still, those endeavouring to preserve the Church’s received teaching and worship have sometimes encountered opposition from those whose sacred responsibility is to safeguard them.
Our Lord does not rebuke the servants for recognising the cockle. Their concern is justified, and the master’s acknowledgement of the enemy’s work confirms their judgement. Their mistake concerns the remedy they propose and their assumption that they may accomplish immediately what belongs ultimately to divine judgement.
St Augustine drew upon this parable during his controversies with the Donatists, insisting that the presence of sinners within the Church’s visible communion did not destroy her holiness or justify abandoning her unity. Our Lord identifies the field as the world, and the parable teaches us something essential about the condition in which the Church must fulfil her mission until the end of time. Her members remain subject to temptation and sin; the final separation of the just and wicked belongs to Almighty God.
St John Chrysostom, commenting upon the same passage, recognised in the cockle the danger of heresy. He understood that the patience commanded by Christ did not require indifference towards false teaching. Error must be exposed and resisted because souls are endangered by it. The Church’s responsibility to defend the truth remains, as does the duty of her pastors to correct abuses and exercise proper discipline. What Our Lord reserves to Himself is the ultimate judgement of souls.
The present crisis therefore demands our attention, our prayers and, according to our state in life, our active defence of the Catholic Faith. Yet there is a danger that the magnitude of the crisis may so occupy our thoughts and energies that we lose sight of the very reason for which Our Lord established His Church. Her supreme purpose is the salvation of souls. Everything undertaken for her restoration must ultimately serve that supernatural end.
We may spend considerable time examining the causes of the present difficulties, recognising their consequences and seeking remedies. Such efforts have their proper place. But the salvation of our own souls, and our responsibility towards the salvation of others, cannot be postponed until the crisis is resolved. Our Lord has entrusted that work to us now, amid the circumstances in which Providence has placed us.
Indeed, the restoration of the Church must begin precisely here. Every soul reclaimed from sin, every family restored to the practice of the Faith, every child instructed in Catholic doctrine, every worthy reception of the sacraments contributes to the spiritual renewal of Christ’s Mystical Body. The conversion and sanctification of souls are themselves the fruits which the Lord of the harvest desires.
This is why the Octave Day of All Saints provides such an appropriate setting for today’s Proper Last Gospel. Throughout these eight days the Church has placed before us the innumerable company of those who have completed their earthly pilgrimage and attained the beatific vision. They lived through troubles of their own, including periods of ecclesiastical corruption, doctrinal controversy, persecution and widespread religious indifference. Their circumstances differed, but their ultimate purpose remained the same: to know, love and serve Almighty God, and through His grace to attain eternal salvation.
History affords us abundant evidence of how their sanctity contributed to the Church’s renewal. St Benedict, living amid the disintegration of the Western Roman world, established a form of religious life ordered towards prayer, obedience and the search for God. From that beginning arose monasteries which became centres of evangelisation, learning and Christian civilisation. The consequences of his fidelity extended far beyond anything he could have anticipated.
When the Church faced serious disorders in the Middle Ages, St Francis of Assisi recalled men to evangelical poverty, whilst St Dominic founded an order devoted to preaching and the defence of sound doctrine. During the upheavals of the sixteenth century, St Charles Borromeo laboured for the reform of the clergy, the establishment of seminaries and the renewal of pastoral discipline. These saints recognised the evils confronting their respective generations, but understood that ecclesiastical reform required the sanctification of those who belonged to the Church.
Their example remains instructive because we are inclined to measure the prospects of restoration by developments in Rome, episcopal appointments, ecclesiastical legislation or changes in institutional policy. These matters are certainly important. Nevertheless, no administrative reform, however necessary, can substitute for the work of divine grace within the human soul. A reformed institution still requires holy men to govern it, faithful priests to serve it and devout families through whom the Faith may be transmitted to another generation.
The Beatitudes, proclaimed in today’s Gospel, describe the dispositions by which the saints were formed. Our Lord blesses the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after justice, the clean of heart and those who suffer persecution for His sake. The holiness which He teaches is the fruit of grace received and faithfully cultivated, involving the purification of our desires, the government of our passions, perseverance in virtue and an ever-deepening conformity to His divine will.
Our second commemoration, that of the Four Crowned Martyrs, illustrates how such fidelity is exercised amid ordinary responsibilities. Their ancient Roman cult is associated with Christian craftsmen of Pannonia who, according to the traditional account, refused to carve an image intended for pagan worship. Their refusal brought them into conflict with imperial authority and ultimately cost them their lives. Although the historical traditions concerning the groups commemorated under this title are complicated, their witness has been honoured by the Church since antiquity.
These men were craftsmen whose daily occupation required skill and industry. Yet when obedience to earthly authority demanded something contrary to their allegiance to Christ, they refused. Their sanctity was revealed through the circumstances of their ordinary employment, when fidelity became costly.
Their example reminds us that the restoration of Catholic life requires the Faith to govern the whole of our existence. The Christian family must once again become a place of prayer, religious instruction and the practice of virtue. Priests must be supported in their sacred ministry, vocations encouraged, and the traditional worship of the Church cherished and faithfully maintained. Each Catholic, according to his circumstances, has some contribution to make towards the salvation of others. The opportunities may appear modest, but the supernatural value of an action cannot be measured by its public recognition.
We should remember, moreover, that the Church is indefectible. Christ’s promises guarantee that His Church will endure, preserving the divine constitution and essential means of salvation which He established. They do not guarantee that every nation, diocese or religious institution will remain faithful or continue to flourish. The history of Christianity contains painful examples of once flourishing Catholic communities which have disappeared. The transmission of the Faith from one generation to another therefore demands our continuing fidelity.
Here we return to the field of the Gospel. The presence of cockle does not prevent the wheat from growing, nor does the master’s patience mean that the condition of the field is of no consequence. The good seed must be cultivated until the harvest. Our responsibility is to cooperate with the grace by which God brings forth its fruit, whilst resisting those things which threaten its growth.
At this altar we offer the Holy Sacrifice through which all the saints were redeemed and sanctified. We join our prayers to theirs, asking that Almighty God will preserve us in the true Faith, strengthen His Church amid her present trials, and grant us the grace to persevere in charity and holiness.
The crisis will have its place in the history of the Church, as other crises have before it. But when the Lord of the harvest comes, the decisive question for each of us will concern the fruit which His grace has borne in our lives and whether, through our fidelity, others have been helped towards eternal salvation.
The saints whom we honour today have already reached that blessed harvest. Their example assures us that holiness remains possible in every age, however troubled. Their intercession encourages us to undertake the work which Providence has entrusted to us.
For the restoration of the Church begins with the restoration of souls to God, and there is no more urgent contribution we can make to that work than to become saints ourselves, and to help others become saints with us.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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