Weeds, Wheat, and Cancel Culture

This post contains spoilers for an episode from The Crown, season 2, which is clearly marked at start and end points.

Wheat and Weeds

Today is the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, and in today's Gospel Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the weeds. The wheat is sown, but an enemy of the farmer sows weeds in the field. A faithful servant asks the farmer if he wants the weeds to be pulled up now. But the farmer says "no" because pulling up the weeds may also pull up the wheat. Instead, the farmer directs, leave both until the harvest. Then, and only then, will the weeds be sorted from the wheat and thrown into the fire.

I think it can be all too easy for us to think to ourselves that we know who in this world is wheat and who is a weed. But to do so is to miss the point. Jesus is teaching specifically that the job of identifying and separating the wheat from the weeds is not within our power.

Saint Francis de Sales writes the following in his Introduction to the Devout Life:

"Of a truth, hasty judgments are most displeasing to God, and men's judgments are hasty, because we are not judges one of another, and by judging we usurp our Lord's own office. Man's judgment is hasty, because the chief malice of sin lies in the intention and counsel of the heart, which is shrouded in darkness to us. Moreover, man's judgments are hasty, because each one has enough to do in judging himself, without undertaking to judge his neighbor. If we would not be judged, it behooves us alike not to judge others, and to judge ourselves. ...for the most part we precisely reverse these precepts, judging our neighbor, which is forbidden on all sides, while rarely judging ourselves, as we are told to do." 

As human beings with a fallen nature, we are often wrong about other people. Think about a person you know and love, of whom your first impression was very wrong. This is part of what makes us human - we learn over a period of time, and, as a result, we can make assumptions and judgments about other people that are incorrect because we lack information. (Classic example from literature: Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.)

As an example from Scripture of what refraining from rash judgment looks like, Saint Francis de Sales offers us the image of Saint Joseph:

"...when St. Joseph found that the Blessed Virgin was with child, knowing her to be pure and holy, e could not believe that there was any sin in her, and he left all judgment to God, although there was strong presumptive evidence on which to condemn her. And the Holy Spirit speaks of St. Joseph as a 'just man.' When a just man cannot see any excuse for what is done by a person in whose general worth he believes, he still refrains from judging him, and leaves all to God's Judgment. 

...Are we never, then, to judge our neighbor? you ask. Never, my child. ...It is forbidden to all men alike, as men, to judge one another." 

In the words of Brene Brown: "Stay out of judgment. Not easy when you enjoy it as much as some of us do." (Watch her video on "Empathy vs. Sympathy". It's amazing.)

Cancel Culture

In the last month alone it has become increasingly common for people to go around digging up dirt on just about anyone and condemning them openly on social media. The person may be living or dead, rich or poor, black or white, man or woman. It doesn't matter. Anyone is fair game. As soon as something is unearthed (which undoubtedly it will be since all of us are sinners and imperfect), the crowds cry "Crucify them" in so many words, or, to use today's language, "cancel them." Even if the person in question apologizes or asks for forgiveness, the judgment stands and the person is dismissed. 

The very problem with this mindset is that it assumes a role that none of us can rightfully take. As St. Francis de Sales says, we are too hasty to judge others and yet we refuse to judge ourselves. We quickly condemn others, but are we at all willing to look inward and see our own flaws? 

"You don't believe you and I could change things?" "I would change myself first." - Amazing Grace (2006) 

Patience

The parable of the weeds and wheat speaks beautifully to the patience of God. How long does he leave the fields as they are? Until the harvest. Until the end. 

Jesus once revealed to Saint Faustina what a soul that is near death experiences. Through this revelation, Saint Faustina realized that the mercy of God is ever-present, ever-offered, to the soul up until the very last possible moment. Furthermore, if that soul were to turn to God's mercy even in the last millisecond of existence, that soul would not be condemned to the fires of hell. Such is God's mercy. His mercy does not give up on us...not for a moment. 

In the same way, the Lord desires that we would be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful. In fact, Jesus equates this with perfection: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect... be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful." We must be patient with one another. We must recognize that each and every person is on a journey.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (whose spiritual director was Francis de Sales) ran a soup kitchen out of her home during her lifetime, and once people asked her why she didn't turn away the people who came back through the line a second time. Her response was to say "God has never turned me away when I come asking him for forgiveness again and again." 

Sadly, our society has drifted so far from the ways of God that we no longer seem to recognize forgiveness as an acceptable measure. But what pains me even more is that my own Christian and Catholic brothers and sisters are openly condemning one another on social media. It breaks my heart because, when we know Jesus, we know that His desire is that we "may be one" just as He and the Father (and the Spirit) are one. Thus, wherever division is present...wherever it conquers...the Evil One is most assuredly at work. 

It's the Little Things

I remember reading The Screwtape Letters for the very first time as a Masters student, and being both surprised and deeply convicted by the theme throughout the book of how small of things, how miniscule of failures can lead us down paths of destruction. My professor at the time referred to these as the logismoi - tiny little things that may not be sins of themselves but that open the doorways to temptations and sinful dispositions. This is an ongoing theme of Screwtape: 

"One of our great allies at present is the Church itself," writes Screwtape, a senior-ranking demon advising his less-experienced nephew on how to lead his assigned human to eternal damnation. "Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. ...But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands.... When he gets to his pew and looks around him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like 'the body of Christ' and the actual faces in the next pew. It matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains. You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy's [God's] side. No matter. Your patient...is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbours sings out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous."

It starts so small - small as an attitude toward the person next to us at Mass. One might even say it could start with an attitude like: "Well, it's my Christian duty to correct them and condemn their ideas." Says who? Who gave you this authority or direction? Certainly it is your duty to educate yourself and those in your care about the truths of our faith, and to be aware of those things that contradict the truth and (so far as possible) avoid the voices that we know do not help us to become saints. ("You shall know them by their fruits," is a good pole for guidance here.) But to openly condemn (as social media has given us the power to do so easily) anyone we disagree with... is this Christlike? Is this in God's image? 

If we look to the merciful God of Scripture who stays faithful to unfaithful Israel time and again, we know the answer.  

Prudence

One of my favorite episodes of The Crown is during season 2, episode 6.

****SPOILER WARNING****

In this episode, Queen Elizabeth invites Billy Graham to Buckingham Palace after the evangelists' sermons have convicted the English people quite powerfully. Despite her family's opinions that the evangelist seems "commonplace", Elizabeth is determined to meet him and openly admits that she finds Mr. Graham's way of speaking and guiding the faithful to be helpful and inspiring. 

The bulk of the episode, however, is spent on a difficult truth in the royal family's history. Elizabeth's uncle, the Duke of Windsor and previously king of England (who abdicated, thus leading to Elizabeth's father's kingship) is discovered to have had friendly connections with Adolf Hitler shortly before World War II. At present, the Duke of Windsor desires to return to England and serve at some minor political level. Elizabeth, who has a fondness for her uncle, wrestles with the knowledge of his past, the request he has made, and whether she ought to forgive him. 

*****END OF SPOILERS*****

What I saw demonstrated in this episode is the struggle between forgiveness and prudence. Forgiveness is not so much a claim that what the other has done to us did not hurt as it is a decision to be merciful in our thoughts, attitudes, and (as far as possible) actions toward the other. Prudence, however, is the virtue that directs us to approach each situation with wisdom and discernment. Therefore, it is possible to forgive someone for what they have done, while still prudently choosing to forego future associations with them because of the hurt they have caused. (For example, it is prudent that a victim of abuse would avoid the person who abused them, even if they had managed to eventually forgive the abuser - an incredibly difficult, though saintly task in itself!) 

Justice

The virtue of justice is to "give to God and neighbor what is owed to them." Cancel culture would have us believe that justice is giving condemnation to those who "deserve it." Cancel culture would have us believe that it is just to destroy someone for a past mistake. 

But...suppose we had canceled Paul the apostle for being a persecutor of Christians? We would be missing about 70% of the New Testament. 

Suppose we had canceled Thomas Aquinas for being incorrect about the Immaculate Conception? We would not have the Summa Theologica and various other writings, which are the most quoted documents in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

Suppose Jesus had canceled Peter for denying Him? Suppose the Church had canceled Mary Magdalene or Augustine for their sinful pasts? 

Think of all that we would miss if we applied this trend of thinking to every person who has ever lived? "Let the one among you who has no sin be the first to throw a stone at her." If justice is giving to others what is owed to them, who among us has the right or power to deny forgiveness and mercy to another human being who is infinitely loved by God?

I say this to make a simple point: this trend of condemnation, outside and inside the Christian sphere, is not of God. Cancel culture is not Christian. Calumny is not Christian.

True justice, justice that is of God, says: "I was shown mercy by a God who could easily have denied it to me. Therefore, I will show mercy to my neighbor who has made mistakes." 

True justice says: "It belongs to God alone to pass judgment. I will err on the side of mercy, but also exercise prudence in who I decide to listen to." 

True justice says: "I will not rush into hasty decisions or judgments about others because that is not my responsibility and I don't know their heart the way God does." 

In conclusion

Jesus said let the wheat and weeds grow together. We're going to find both in our lives. But most of the time, we will not know who is which. The only one who does know is God alone, so let us take time to listen each day to His voice, for that is the one thing that will help us to "weed out" the voices in our lives that do not align with His. Furthermore, it is in the power of grace to transform weeds into wheat at any point in time. So when the signs of such transformation appear, let us rejoice with the saints and angels, for God's mercy has triumphed! 

"Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful." 

-the Itinerant Catechist