We are in the sixteenth
Sunday of ordinary time. The co-existence of good and evil in the world is the perennial
problems. In the past many have sought to reconcile them – by understanding, devising
different ways to remove evil and to promote good but invariably none of them
have succeed in doing that. The present scenario - covid 19 pandemic – is
making many to perceive the reality as something that is filled with evil. It makes
many to be frightened and be fearful. Despite acknowledging human limitations
some admit evil as something that has come to us from outside of us which we
cannot overcome. This way of perceiving the reality is not proper. We can
overcome the evil. To do so, the reading of gospel of today taken from Mt.
13:24-43 tell us first to admit the co-existence of good and evil.
God created only good. If so,
from where does the evil come? The commencement of evil is the misuse of human
freedom. God blessed human being with freedom to choose good. Evil is not
immanent in our freedom. According to me, Evil is not even privation of good,
as said by St. Augustine. We choose only good in our freedom, because, all of
us want only good things to happen to us. Thus, we choose only good. The
problem of evil come into scene when our choice of good becomes a stumbling block
for the other to choose his/her own good. For instance, there are two apples in
a table. I with my freedom choose to eat both of them so that I may overcome
hunger or gain strength. I am exercising my freedom, I am choosing good. But, there
happen to be another person present with me, who also wants to eat them both for
the same purpose as that of mine. Here both of us are exercising our freedom
but my freedom of choosing both the apples to eat by myself hinders the other
from exercising his/her freedom and vice-versa. There is a conflict between two
freedoms – my freedom and another person’s freedom. Here both of us need to
reconcile our freedoms by choosing only one apple to eat. Thus, both of us admit
our limitation in exercising our freedoms as well as achieve the goal of
freedom in choosing good. If one of us were to be adamant in eating both the
apple by oneself, the other may go hungry, he may go somewhere and fill his/her
hunger by imitating my behaviour towards him which may put some other in misery,
then that person go somewhere… the evil which one gave birth multiplies. Therefore,
evil is not something that is outside of us rather it is that which gets birth from
inside of us. Jesus said that it is only what comes from inside of man causes
evil (Mt. 15:11,19,20).
Having said all these we need
to understand the miseries in the world; poverty, hunger, theft, malnutrition –
just to mention a few – as consequences of misuse of human freedom by some
people. The pitiable situation is that mostly the consequence affects not the
misuser but the other. We need to overcome this evil by rectifying the misuses
of human freedom. It is not a single activity. It needs collective responses. It
needs the cooperation of all. God allows good and evil to co-exist because He
respects human freedom, because He has given us potency to correct our errors,
because he wants all of us to denounce evil and choose good freely. The owner
of the land sows only good seed but he tolerates the weeds that grow along with
the grains (Mt. 13:29). It is only at the time of harvest the owner separates
the wheat from weeds (Mt. 13:30). As the one evil ripples, multiplies and spirals
into many evils, one good also can ripple, multiply and spiral good. The kingdom
of heaven is like a mustard seed at the time of sowing but when it grows it is
the greatest of all trees in the world (Mt. 13:31-32). Thus, we can undo the
evils from start doing good.
The people who suffer evil unjustly
will be rewarded by God at the end of time. At the same time God wants the
people who cause and give birth to evil to turn away from their wicked ways. After
all they too are His sons and daughters. He wants them to repent and become
good. For that to happen we need to pray. Today the world is filled with evil
and wicked ways. Lots of negativity and filth are eroding the human life and
values. We need to pray for two things; for the conversion of sinner and to
understand God’s will in reality. For the latter to happen, as St. Paul says, we
need to pray with the help of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:26). The spirit will make
us to attune to God’s will. He will enlighten us respond to the present situation
in godly manner. May our freedom of choice help us to choose good and respect
others freedom of choice.
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