Possibility of Coexistence?

“He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
"First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

Matthew 13:29-30

Perhaps it is safe to say that we human beings we see good and evil at play all the time. Sometimes it seems as if the good wins and other times, evil. But we must not confuse this interplay between good and evil to be a coexistence. Of course good and evil are seemingly coexisting in the world, but not because God has no power over evil. That is the point I am trying to convey: there is a coexistence not because the Lord of Life and the Prince of Death are equally powerful and so a “truce” exists. Only because God permits it is there this coexistence. The good and evil dwell in the same sphere because God in His Providence allows it for a bigger plan that is to come.

In today’s Gospel, Matthew shares with us several parables Jesus used to explain the Kingdom of Heaven. Among them is a parable about a sower who sows good seed but an enemy comes at night and scatters seeds of weeds. When asked if the weeds should be uprooted the sower said “no” because the good might also be uprooted. So the weeds and the wheat are allowed to grow together. But when the harvest time comes, the weeds are separated from the wheat. Likewise, good and evil are at play in this temporal sphere but when the Last Day comes, the Lord will separate the good and evil, sending the wicked back to their rightful place and gathering His faithful sheep to Himself. But the problem is that we are here in the here and now. The Last Day has not yet come and we know neither the day nor the hour. So, what should we do?

We must continue to do good and pursue the truth at all cost. Sometimes evil and lies help us see the truth and goodness that lies in beauty. Perhaps that is also why the Lord permits evil to exist in this world. When we can see both good and evil, we can then discern which is from God and devote our entire lives and beings to living out goodness and pursuing holiness and truth. So then, coexistence is a possibility, but only because God permits it and not because God has no power over it, but because He does and uses it to bring about great good.

May we neve lose sight of the omnipotence or all-powerfulness of our God and draw strength from the Cross, knowing that good has already triumphed over evil, and live out our lives striving for the same, holding fast to the truth that at the end, love and goodness prevails.