What to Do with Weeds

“Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?  Where have the weeds come from?” (Mt 13:27)
 
The question we most like to ask in times of trial is: “Why?”
Why did this happen, God?  Why do things not go the way they should?  Why do I have to endure this?  Why does she have to suffer that?  Why is the world in such a state?  Why do our best efforts amount to little and our selfish drives pollute everything?  Were you the one sleeping while the enemy sowed destruction?  Why don’t you get up and do something?  How can you stand by idle and say, “Let them grow”?  Why don’t you fix your creation, make it all new and better?  Is there anyone there?  Hello!?
 
The Psalms are full of such challenges to God:
“Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?  Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Ps 10:1)
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
    and by night, but find no rest.” (Ps 22:1-2)
“Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?  Awake, do not cast us off for ever!  Why do you hide your face?  Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?” (Ps 44:23-4)
“Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?” (Ps 74:11)
“Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.” (Ps 79:10)
 
This is also Job’s question:
“I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.” (Jb 10:2)
“Why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy?” (Jb 13:24)
“Why do the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?” (Jb 21:7)
“Why are times not kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?” (Jb 24:1)
 
These wonderfully tough words of Sacred Scripture give us permission to shake our fist at God as we ask him our favorite question: “Why?”  God, however, does not tend to answer this question in a way that satisfies us.   God does not answer the Psalmist with explanations, but says simply: “I have seen the trouble and sorrow, I note it, I take it in hand” (Cf. Ps 10:14).  God’s answer to Job is to blow his mind with a series of questions spanning time and space, which ultimately comes down to: “Do you know who I am?”  The question God prefers to ask and to answer in every book of the Bible is not “Why?” but “Who?”  “Who do you say that I am?” (Mt 16:15).
 
The master of this parable is my hero: the one who can look with equanimity upon the infiltration of his beautiful planting by trouble not of his making, by sin and all the pain which is its corollary.  Julian of Norwich describes God as perpetually calm.  Being calm is not the same as being indifferent.  But this farmer can look on his weed-infested wheat field without any trace of puritanical fervor or utopian zeal.  There is no violence in his hand.  He will not tear up the weeds and risk the destruction of the wheat.  God has all this in hand.  He will see to it.  And in the meantime: “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Mt 5:45).
 
“Who?”
Who are you, God, so great and mysterious and free that you wield all things, even pain and death and tragedy?
The answer to this question is the source of all our hope.