5. One of the parables told by Jesus about the growth of the Kingdom of God on earth reveals to us, in a very realistic way, the nature of the struggle inherent in the Kingdom, due to the presence and action of an ‘enemy’ who ‘sows tares (or weeds) amongst the wheat’. Jesus says that, when ‘the crop had grown and borne fruit, the weeds also appeared’. The servants of the owner of the field would like to pull them up, but the owner does not allow them to do so, ‘lest . . . you uproot the wheat as well. ‘Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers: First gather the weeds and bind them in bundles to be burnt; but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Mt 13:24–30). This parable explains the coexistence and often the intertwining of good and evil in the world, in our lives, and in the very history of the Church. Jesus teaches us to view things with Christian realism and to deal with every problem with clarity of principle, but also with prudence and patience. This presupposes a transcendent vision of history, in which we know that everything belongs to God and every final outcome is the work of his Providence. However, the final fate – of an eschatological nature – of the good and the wicked is not hidden: it is symbolised by the gathering of the wheat into the storehouse and the burning of the weeds.

6. Jesus himself explains the parable of the sower, at the disciples’ request (cf. Mt 13:36–43). His words reveal both the temporal and eschatological dimensions of the Kingdom of God.

He says to his disciples: ‘To you has been entrusted the mystery of the Kingdom of God’ (Mk 4:11). He instructs them on this mystery and, at the same time, through his word and his work, ‘prepares a kingdom for them, just as the Father has prepared it for him (the Son)’ (cf. Lk 22:29). This preparation continued even after his Resurrection: indeed, we read in the Acts of the Apostles that ‘he appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God’ (cf. Acts 1:3) until the day when ‘he was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God’ (Mk 16:19). These were the final instructions and directives to the Apostles on what they were to do after the Ascension and Pentecost in order to bring about the concrete beginning of the Kingdom of God at the very origins of the Church.

[John Paul II, General Audience, 25 September 1991]