Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

It is not only sheep who abide in the Church, nor do only clean birds fly there to and fro. But amongst the grain other seed is sown, for "amidst the neat grain-fields, burrs and weeds and barren oats lord it in the land" (Virgil's Georgics). What is the farmhand to do? Root up the darnel? In that case the whole harvest is destroyed along with it! Every day the farmer diligently drives away the birds by making a noise or by frightening them with scarecrows (…) Nevertheless he suffers from the raids of nimble roes or the wantonness of wild asses; on the one hand voles convey the grain to their underground barns, on the other, ants in a moving column ravage the crop. This is how things are! No one who has land is free from care. While the householder slept, the enemy sowed tares; when the servants hastened to go and root them up, the Master prevented them, reserving for Himself the separation of wheat and chaff. (…) No one, before the Day of Judgment, can take Christ's winnowing fan in hand, no one can pass judgment on another, whoever they might be.

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Saturday of the Sixteenth week in Ordinary Time

The good grain and the weeds, mixed together in the Church until the Day of the Lord

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