Today’s readings talk about good and evil co-existing in the world. Both the first reading and the Gospel talk about how God will ultimately deal with evil. In the first reading from Wisdom, we learn that God’s might is the source of justice and that He will exercise His might when people choose to turn from Him, however the bulk of the reading speaks to His clemency and leniency. In the Gospel passage Jesus uses a parable to describe how good and evil will coexist in the world until the end of time, when final judgment takes place (of course, we believe that we’ll know our fate at the time of our death). He then explains the parable in detail to His disciples. God creates all people with free will, the ability to choose good vs evil. The devil is constantly trying to sow his bad seed, providing temptation after temptation to try to get us to stray. Last week we heard about seed falling in different places, and how only the seed that falls into fertile ground bears fruit. If God created us all with free will, what is it that helps us make the right choices? St. Paul gives us the answer in the second reading. The Holy Spirit is given to us to guide us and to help us move beyond our limited capacity as sinners to interact with our God. If we fail to listen to one set of directions, the Spirit will try to put us on another path…sort of like when we don’t listen to the GPS in our car (not my analogy, but a great one nonetheless). But we need to pay attention and listen to what the Spirit is saying and where He is guiding us.