When You See Weeds Amid the Wheat, Remember Christ’s Words and Take Heart

[Michie]

In the end, just as mercy confounds might, so the capacity of wheat to eclipse the weeds is written into the very economy of salvation.

“I love that Church which plunges into the thickets of human history and is not afraid of compromising itself by getting mixed up with men’s affairs … because it loves men and therefore goes out to look for them wherever they are. And I love best of all that Church which is mud-splashed from history because it has played its part in history, that Church of the poor which is denounced by pharisees whose hands are clean but who can point to no single person they have saved.” —Jean Daniélou, Prayer as a Political Problem

While it is not possible to inventory the joys of Heaven, nor even to precise exactly how many there are, nevertheless we have it on faith that for all that we cannot yet know of what lies on the other side, it will surely exceed all the happiness we look for here and now.

“The whole man,” notes C. S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory, “is to drink joy from the fountain of joy.”

And quoting no less an authority than the renowned Bishop of Hippo, St. Augustine, he adds: “The rapture of the saved soul, will ‘flow over’ into the glorified body. In the light of our present specialized and depraved appetites we cannot imagine this torrens voluptatis, and I warn everyone most seriously not to try.”

Continued below.

When You See Weeds Amid the Wheat, Remember Christ’s Words and Take Heart

In the end, just as mercy confounds might, so the capacity of wheat to eclipse the weeds is written into the very economy of salvation.

www.ncregister.com

 

[Bob Crowley]

I've got a book somewhere. I'm too lazy to bother finding it at the moment, but it's titled "Weeds Among the Wheat" by Thomas H. Green SJ.

Until I read it I always assumed the wheat and the weeds were good and evil people ie. us and them.

But he brought into focus that we ourselves contain both wheat and weeds, good and bad points.

One interesting phrase he used was "the tail of the snake". Years ago when I was in the Presbyterian Church I went through a stage when I kept getting brief images in my mind of the "tail of a snake". It was never the whole snake but just the tail - it would move into a clump of grass or over a log and out of sight.

It was usually at night when I was asleep or on the edge of it. I told the pastor about it and he commented that it was probably a sign of the devil's presence in some form.

The Jesuit Mr. Green in his book used that very phrase "the tail of the snake" and he also indicated it was an idication of demonic interference.

In short we don't need to look outside ourselves to see evidence of "weeds amid the wheat".

 

[Bob Crowley]

I took the trouble to find the book "Weeds among the Wheat" and skimmed it looking for the phrase "the tail of the snake".

I found two instances. There could be more but I'm tired and can't be bothered looking further. Bear in mind Mr. Green is a Jesuit and would be quite familiar with Ignatian discernment.

1. "The middle. When Ignatius speaks of the 'middle' of the course of our thoughts, I take it he means what happens during the actual consolation experience. Suppose I am in the right place at the right time for the right reasons; this is the proper time for prayer and I come to it with a generous heart. And there is consolation in my prayer. If, in such a situation, the devotion which I feel leads to, or is accompanied by vain or judgemental thoughts, then the tail of the snake is manifest in the "middle" of experience ... then the consolation is not from the Lord, no matter how beautiful (even ecstatic) it may seem."

2. In this case he used the hypothetical situation of a priest falling love with Suzibelle and he wants to leave his ministry to marry her.

"... Such a commitment is good, he argues, and so must be from God.

Here the discernment is much trickier than in the case of enthusiastic movements. The 'end' is not clearly evil; in fact it is a great good, one of the principle reasons for the sanctity of marriage. But is it good for this priest, who has made a stable commitment to One already, and who has been effective in the ministry consequent upon that commitment? Is the change a sign of the tail of the snake precisely because it leads to a lesser good for the church and this man? Just ask yourself: If you were the devil, how would you work to destroy the commitment of a pious and effective priest?"

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Elsewhere in the book Mr Green SJ talked about the benefits of weeds in our life - keeping us humble, showing us we still have some way to go etc.

But it struck me that a Jesuit who was experienced in spiritual discernment should use the term "tail of the snake" in the light of my own experiences years ago. It just made me wonder if that's an image sometimes experienced by those who are far more conversant with spiritual mattters than I am?

 

[chevyontheriver]

But it struck me that a Jesuit who was experienced in spiritual discernment should use the term "tail of the snake" in the light of my own experiences years ago. It just made me wonder if that's an image sometimes experienced by those who are far more conversant with spiritual mattters than I am?

Interesting. I have never heard of 'tail of the snake' in any spiritual discernemt. BUT it did play a major role in Kekulke figuring out the structure of C6H6 (Benzene). He couldn't figure out how to put that molecule together following any known rules of chemistry. A snake grabbing it's tail came to him in a dream.