Ever since we were small children, one of the hardest parts of life to deal with, is when people do bad things, and then they seemingly get away with it. It’s not fair. It’s not just. If you break the rules, if you do something wrong, if you get in trouble, you’re supposed to have pay the consequences. Isn’t that initially what keeps us from chaos? Don’t all of us learn to obey the rules, at least at first, because we don’t want to have to suffer the consequences? Why don’t all bad people get caught? Why doesn’t everybody have to pay the price of their actions? Osama Bin Laden is still running around hiding in caves. O.J. Simpson is playing golf. Michael Jackson is still strange. Why do some people have to pay the price of what they do, and others, seemingly, get off without any ramifications to their lives?

Back when I was in Catholic school, we had this girl in our class named Christina Elliot. Man, Christina used to make me madder than anybody else. You see, Christina, was everybody’s favorite cute little girl. She had blue eyes, and curly hair, and just the right amount of freckles. Christina looked like she belonged on the Mickey Mouse Club. All the teachers loved Christina. Come to think of it, all the parents loved Christina too. Even the priests and the nuns at our parish and school loved Christina. I was like, “Come on, Sister, you’ve got to see through this act.” She had all the adults on her side. But every kid in our class knew that Christina was evil. This girl could lie, and cheat, and do terrible things to her classmates. And she never got caught. And nobody wanted to tell on her. Nobody wanted to “rat” her out. She was the Don Corleone of our third grade class. Are you kidding, if you crossed Christina, you’d probably wake up with your little brother’s head in your bed. Christina messed with me just one time. Christina tried to blame something that she did on me. So I started out giving her one of my first homilies. “Christina Elliot, you are going to Hell some day” I told her. “God is going to let you burn until you’re crispier than bacon.” Now, that would have worked with me. This was because I didn’t want to go to Hell. But Christina didn’t care about Hell. She probably didn’t even have a soul, and I’m thinking that she is going to be concerned about Hell? Christina wasn’t buying it. More drastic measures were needed. Maybe God needed my help in punishing Christina? So I sat on her lunch. Christina never bothered me again.

Today, in our Gospel, Jesus is reminding us, in parable form, that yes there is a punishment coming for those who think that they are getting away with their ungodly ways. We hear how while we are in this world, the weeds and wheat grow together, and the weeds only think that they’ve got it made. Sure, they are allowed to live right along side the wheat, but a separation day is coming. It is not now. It is not up to us. But make no mistake about it, One day, the weeds will be separated from the wheat. And we’ve got to remember this also. It only looks like the weeds are flourishing. This is an illusion. One day, all of the weed’s success, all that they have achieved in this life, is going to go away. And then what will they have?

There will be nothing that lasts!

We live in a crazy world. We live in a world that thinks that bad is good and good is bad. We live in a world where many truly do believe that they can live their lives anyway they want to, because God doesn’t care, or because they don’t believe that God exists. But we know better. We have experienced the living God. And we know that our God has very specific expectations for how we are supposed to be living in this world. We know this, because Jesus taught us. One day we will be held accountable for what we’ve been taught. One day a judgment will take place. On that day, Hell is going to become a reality for a lot of people who didn’t believe that it was a possibility. We need to make sure that we are not in that group of people. We know the way that we are supposed to be living. We know when we sin. We know what we need to do to be better. Then, it is time that we do it. When Judgment Day comes, you want to make sure that you are wheat. A funny thing happens to wheat that surrounds itself with weeds all the time, it start to look, and act, like the weeds. It gets confusing as to what it really is. We don’t want the Lord to be confused on Judgment Day. We want to be His holy people. The time to live that way is right now. Let us keep our eyes set on Heaven. Let us avoid all evil in this world. And let us await the harvest that is coming, where we won’t have to deal with weeds any longer.

People who do evil things are a problem, whether they get caught or not. The world is a mess because of them. They make all of us look bad. They keep us from being what God desires us to be. But that’s what they choose. Let us choose to live for God. In the end, you’ll be glad that you did.

May God bless us today, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!