Parable of the Good Grain and the Tares

The Wheat and the Tares, after James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum

This parable, reported by Maria Valtorta, refers to Matthew 13:24-30 and Matthew 13:36-43 for the explanation. In this same chapter, the evangelist reports six other parables.

The parable

The parable of Jesus of the good grain and the tares is explained this way in the Gospel: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the Kingdom; the tares are the sons of the Evil One. The enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the harvesters are the Angels. Just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send his Angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all causes of sin and those who do evil."

There are two levels of explanation: the first for the crowd (), the second for the Disciples who want to know the fuller meaning (). It is not a desire to hide part of the meaning from the crowd, but a consideration of each one’s capacity to understand ().

What Maria Valtorta says about it

Maria Valtorta's account takes the two levels mentioned in the Gospel and develops them, but adds a third level specifically intended for the Apostles, future pastors of the Church. The parable then applies to the Discernment of Souls—a level that the Gospel does not report.

She details what the Evil One sowed in the field: the tares, nettles, couch grass, bindweed, dodder, and hemlock. Each plant is the image of an evil that the Demon has instilled in the world through the Original Sin. For each category, Jesus comments on the attitude that the future Pastors of the Church must have.

In Maria Valtorta, this parable occurs in a particular context: the day before, they had learned of the arrest of the Baptist following a betrayal by one of his Disciples. The betrayal was so shocking that trouble troubled the Apostles: how could one reach that point, and am I myself capable of becoming a traitor? Jesus sheds light here on the "field of the Evil One."

Noteworthy points

The weeds

In Maria Valtorta, it is not only the tares, but a whole series of harmful plants. This finds its explanation in the verse from the Gospel: "they (the Angels) will remove from his Kingdom all causes of sin and those who do evil." It is obvious that there is not just one cause of sin and that those who do evil are manifold.

Botanical knowledge

In Maria Valtorta, the dodder (cuscuta palaestina) denotes the twisters, like its tendrils that insinuate themselves, cling, and strangle. As its botanical name indicates, it comes from Palestine. Likewise, the nettles that wound "by an excess of venom," creating the rancor so detrimental to cohesion, like the hemlock (the criminal Disciples) were also present in the Middle East.

Points under debate

The tares

From 1979 to 1983, a controversy arose between two Catholic monthly magazines: La Chiesa Viva of Brescia (Lombardy), critical of the work, and a bimonthly from Montefranco (Terni, Umbria), refuting the criticism. La Chiesa Viva noted that the tares described by Maria Valtorta were not the intoxicating tares of the Gospel.

The tare is a plant, but also a variety of plants. The Gospel does not specify which one it is. There are ten different varieties that, botanically, can grow in a "mild, sunny, and relatively humid climate." It is therefore premature to conclude that it is the intoxicating tare.

In Italian, as in Latin, tare is known by two names: Loglio / Lolium or zizania / zizzania. Two words never designate exactly the same thing.

In the Vulgate of Saint Jerome, the term zizania is used (whence the expression "to sow discord") and not the term lolium, the Latin name of tare that La Chiesa viva opposes and which botany adopts.

Zizzania has a double meaning: tare and weed. It is therefore also a generic term designating the "bad" plants. It is in this generic sense that Jesus uses it in Maria Valtorta. It is in this sense that the catechesis of Matthew 13:36-43 can be understood, which could have been called "the good grain and the weeds."

For further reading

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