That Darn Darnel
16th Sunday of the Ordinary Time – That Darn Darnel
Satan has many names throughout Scripture, but I am adding a new one: Darnel.
Now don’t laugh – it’s actually perfect for him.
Truly, I am fascinated by this parable. In praying with the Scriptures for this Sunday, I feel as though the depths of Christ’s Heart were unlocked in ways it never has before. Like many of us, I am sure, we always heard this particular teaching of Jesus as a message of: “Be wheat; watch out for the weeds.”
And while that is certainly true, there’s so much more to this parable than a pious platitude. Rather, it’s a warning of love; a crying out not from the desert (at least this time) but from the fields of grain where God’s Kingdom is present.
What Jesus knew – and what the crowd understood who gathered about him – was that there were many dangers to growing a healthy crop of wheat, but perhaps none more so than darnel.
Never heard of it? Neither did I.
Now at the risk of sounding like your high school biology teacher, a little explanation is necessary: darnel is a weed that has adapted overtime to look almost exactly like wheat. It has the same style-and-shape of stalk and the same coloring, especially as both the wheat and darnel are growing together in their infancy stages. (I see you yawning; stay with me). Both grow about the same rate and same size, and even the early ears – or tops – of the wheat and darnel look the same.
Therefore, it is almost impossible to distinguish the wheat from the darnel, or the weeds. Uprooting what one thinks is darnel might actually destroy the wheat, and at the same time, bundling them together and not caring whether the stalk is wheat or weed also has long-lasting repercussions.
Thus, Jesus’s warning: whoever has ears ought to hear.
I thought this was always a stupid expression, no offense to the Lord. I always took it as: you better listen to me, or else. Absorb this lesson or you will burn with the weeds at the end of the age. Okay, got it.
But there is a whole other level to this expression, especially when it comes to this parable: it’s in the ears of the crop where we find-out what’s good and what is truly evil – so we best pay attention to that ear. In other words, it is in the very top/head of the grain where we can tell the difference between the crop and then act accordingly.
Darnel in full maturity has an ear that shifts from wheat-color to very dark, and within the ear are dark little seeds that, if ingested, can be poisonous to both human and animal, causing intense intestinal distress (and we all are worried about explosive stomach issues these days!). Compare this to the grains of wheat that are safe and edible and grow right next to the stem.
Therefore, to be safe, sometimes one has to look closely to see the little dark seeds of darnel that can cause much distress, sickness and pain.
Another interesting fact that can determine whether the grain-ear is wheat or if it’s darnel: whether it bends or if it stays ram-rod straight.
Wheat, when it is fully-grown and healthy, will be flexible enough to gently bow, knowing that it finds its support in the stem itself. The darnel ear, on the other hand, will always remain ramrod straight, and will not bend at any point, even in the storm.
Therefore, when Christ is telling us to be wheat, here’s what he is really reminding us as his disciples: always stay attached to the stem that is God-and-faith; be willing to bend humbly to the One who creates us; and perhaps most importantly – unlike darnel – when the storms of life come, the only way not to break is to bow low, just as Christ Himself did as he carried the Cross for us. Under that weight, He bowed but did not break, and in so doing, became the very Wheat of Eternal Life who feeds us as He leads us.
Isn’t it stunningly beautiful – and so very much God – to allow His Body to be hidden under the appearance of bread, made with the wheat grains He is challenging us to be. As He is, we are called to be, too. I know that is radical to state, but I know that Satan – that Darnel – doesn’t want us to believe it. He doesn’t want us to be wheat.
He’d rather us be fooled by the fake darnel.
And let’s be clear: there is a lot of darnel hidden among the healthy strands of wheat. Thus, one final warning that Jesus places in his parable: the only way to keep the darnel from growing and spreading in the fields of the Kingdom is to stay awake. Notice what Matthew writes: the enemy came while “everyone was asleep.”
In what ways, then, are we sleepwalking through our days?
In what ways are we picking heads of darnel, believing them to be healthy for us?
Are we ingesting or spreading the darnel of hate and revenge and gossip? Are we turning the beauty of the human person into darnel seeds of pornography for our own selfish consumption? Have we replaced the wheat grains of daily prayer and Mass attendance with the unbendable and proud ears of “I don’t need the Church to be a Christian?”
Perhaps, too, this final warning, always from a place of love: Don’t be fooled or made sick by Darnel. An accidental ingestion of one seed might not cause much distress, but constantly eating from the ears of darnel will surely poison one’s life and cause an explosive amount of agony and even untimely death.
What looks good and healthy isn’t always so. What appears to be wheat can often fool us if we aren’t awake. And those heads of illness and death often stand erect in the field, claiming to be the strong one; the better one; the one that never bows or bends.
But let’s be clear: when the storm comes – as it does for all –darnel will break, for it was only masquerading in the first place. It was never healthy or attached to the stem. Darnel attempts in its own pride to do everything by its own power and in its own way, inauthentic and wanting nothing but to fool and sicken those who approach it.
Stay awake, therefore, and look out for the darnel that attempts to grow in the fields of our hearts, our families, our Church and our society … By recognizing it and staying away from it, we remain rooted firmly among the stalks of wheat and the Bread of Life.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.