There’s a beautiful story told about a lovely couple who lived in Milan about 400 years ago, Lucia and Lorenzo. They were simple people and they wanted to get married, but a madman kidnaps Lucia and locks her up in his castle. We don’t know his name; he is just an evil man with a poisoned heart. Lucia cries and begs him to free her, she is poor and has nothing to offer. He listens to her, looks at her and begins to feel a sparkle of goodness in his heart, he hasn’t felt this for years and he wants to let her go. He has his doubts, if I let her go, I will have to continue doing good; I will have to change my life; I will have to become a new person. There is a struggle going on in his heart the struggle between good and evil, a struggle between two ways of living and finally goodness wins and he lets her go. This is the first kind thing he has done in years, but he can’t stop now the desire to do good has taken over his heart, he has become a good person, a happy person. In the gospel today Jesus tells us the story of the wheat and the chaff. In our hears we have wheat and very bad weeds growing side by side, an enemy has done this. The workers ask the landlord should we take out the weeds. The landlord says we will wait until harvest time and then we will separate the wheat and the chaff, and we will burn.
Are we wheat or are we chaff? Am I on the right road or have I strayed?
Jesus tells us that we should not play with God’s patience. Jesus is also telling us something else. Chaff cannot change but a human person can. Like the man in the story the love of Christ touched his heart and changed him. Remember the thief dying on the cross beside Jesus, remember the prodigal son, remember the lost sheep. Jesus never gives us up on a human person, no matter how lost he or she is. Jesus always gives a second chance, let us do the same.