Living Among The Cockle

 Matthew's Gospel for today's Mass is one of those passages that seemed to be speaking directly to me. One of the things I often do is to read and pray with the Douay~Rheims translation of Scripture. I find the language more beautiful and at times, like today, I find a bit more clarity.
In the first parable Jesus uses in today's Gospel, He speaks of the weeds that grow among the wheat. The New American Bible translation used in the Lectionary uses the term "weeds". When I went to my Douay~Rheims translation, the word "cockle" was used. I now pause this reflection briefly to give a short vocabulary lesson. It is the teacher in me; I really can't help myself! I looked up cockle, but got the more traditional definition of the sea mollusk. I then remembered that the weeds Jesus referred to were also sometimes called "false wheat", so I looked up that term, and this is what I found: This weed is also called "darnel", in some regions cockle or false wheat. This weed and actual wheat look exactly alike until they are ripe. Upon ripening the actual good wheat's ear is brown while the cockle or false wheat's ear is black. OK~end of lesson, back to reflection.
I said at the beginning of this post that I felt like God was speaking directly to me in this passage. One reason for this perhaps is because He knows that I have some difficulty being around people in general. My job often requires me to deal with the general public~not one of my strong suits. What I have found myself coming up against lately is a strong sense of entitlement from people in general. I find myself wondering why many, not all, cannot seem to think about anyone but themselves. The devil has used this at times to cause me to be a bit self righteous. It is one of those sins I have brought to confession many times, really wanting to change, but find myself confessing it again at my next confession. So when I read the parable of the good and false wheat today, it was if I heard God saying: "My daughter while you roam this earth, you will need to live among the cockle, the false wheat. It is not your job to uproot it for I will deal with it in the end."
This also made me think of St Paul's words to the Ephesians: "With all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity." (Ephesians 4:2) I need to live as peacefully, patiently and meekly as I can among the cockle, remembering that as the book of Wisdom tells us in today's first reading that God shows His  might when the perfection of His power is disbelieved (see Wisdom 12:17).
So with God's grace I will continue to live this earthly life following St Paul's advice and God's reminder to me that He is ultimately in charge and He doesn't need my help in seeing what is going on in this world.