And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matthew 13:27-30

It is the school vacation in Brazil. The local government has spent months prior “cleaning up” the area for the tourists. Coincidentally the area where we meet with the children is also where this largest city in South America was founded. There is a minute monument to indicate the center point where the city started all its construction. They call it “marco zero” and frankly speaking I can’t find an appropriate term for it in English. Let’s just call it the “center point”. It’s an obligatory photo spot for social media fanatics. Just a few months ago, anyone with their mobile phone out would have lost it within seconds, not to mention gold chains and other valuables. Now we have about twenty police standing around this tiny monument. Besides these, we have tons of them on motorcycles doing their rounds. All the homeless adults were made to leave the area even though it is common knowledge that the homeless adults are not prone to criminal activities. The ones who steal are usually the children and teens, more precisely some of our children and teens. Now the homeless are scattered around somewhere in the area. The children and teens are not allowed to be seen at all. At the present state, one would easily think that are no children and teens sleeping in the streets. Just a few months ago, there were at least a couple of hundred of them.

Ever since last year, we have seen an influx of children from the orphanages here. They came in loads and eventually dominated the scene. Children have a different way of behaving in the streets than the homeless adults. These have a history of family life and many have held jobs before. They tend to bring all these experiences to the streets. Our children start from zero. In a way, the fact that they live and sleep around “center point” is symbolic. This is where our children construct their understanding of human relationships and ethics from zero. Their first instances in the street are always chaotic. They behave like the children from Golding’s book, “Lord of the Flies”. However, this is not the moment to judge them. The weeds and wheat look the same at this point. It is hard to tell. Nevertheless, it is good to remember that there are weeds present. It is a dreadful mistake to romanticize the situation and say that they are all wheat. This attitude might sound beautiful and compassionate but it is a recipe for future disappointment and frustration. It is good to listen the wisdom of Jesus. He prepares us for real life and not life as we would like it. There are always weeds among the wheat.

Needless to say, with the all children going into hiding, our work has become a little complicated. However, this is a cycle we have encountered before. The government is not geared towards solving long term problems. They are satisfied with short term solutions and violence and brute force are the way they achieve it. The cycle starts every few years. The government sends the police to flex their muscles hoping that all the deep rooted societal problems will disappear. It is an illogical process but adopted by many nations. We know that things will soon return back to the state it was before. Despite all this, we still meet a few of the children everyday. In a way, it gives us a chance to spend more quality time with a smaller group. However, it still makes us curious to know where all the two hundred or so children and teens have gone. The ones we manage to find tell us that they spend the whole day wandering around the center. Some sleep under the bridge until it is evening. It still doesn’t account for many. We have enquired if some have decided to return to the orphanage but no one can give us an answer on the matter. We decided to wait for them in the area. They can always find us here.

There is always lots of yelling and noise in the streets. We usually just ignore it but this time I felt that someone was yelling for our attention. We turned around and a tiny boy appeared on a bicycle. Even though he is still a rather small fellow, he was even tinier a few months ago. His name is Lucas. He can’t be more than ten. He was one of the new immigrants to the streets from the orphanages. I always thought that he suffered from autism. Usually he is completely unaware of people around. Many times he walked passed us without saying a word. His face always was void of emotion. However, now he was smiling and he even gave us a hug and gave Mary an affectionate peck on the cheek. He looked all clean and healthy. He claimed that he was back home. We are not sure what this meant. We knew that he always was in an orphanage. Maybe the orphanage meant home for him. We asked him some questions but his mind wasn’t able to process a coherent answer. Still it was good to see him and was even more special that he called out after us. He asked where we have been the past two weeks. I was surprised that he noticed our absence. We were around but he did not see us and immediately assumed that we were away. It makes senses in a way especially for someone like him. Lucas went off without saying goodbye. We are used to it. I still wonder if this cute little boy would be considered a weed or wheat. His adorable appearance hides the fact that he is an expert pickpocket and thief; one that would make Dicken’s the Artful Dodger look like an amateur.

Many in this city will say that all our children are weeds. The government considers all the homeless adults and children in this area to be weeds. This is why they removed them from the area. Now the area seems clean but it is also appears to be dead and sterile. All the life here is gone because of some weeds.

Some people consider a dandelion to be a weed. In many cultures people eat them and considere them to be beneficial plants for our health. Lamentably, many people go after them with a vengeance and discard them as useless plants because they fail to understand their importance. Just because we think something is a weed it doesn’t mean it is. Therefore, we need to know the difference between weeds and wheat. Normally, weeds just take the nutrients without producing any fruit whereas wheat produces fruit which we consider beneficial for life. Of course, this leads us to the problem of defining what it means to produce fruits.

We live in a result oriented world or at least most of us do. I used to think of fruits as results. To be honest, this idea still lingers in me. However, Jesus did many things which did not produce results. For example, He healed many and cast out demons but it did not save him from being accused falsely and crucified. Jesus never did miracles to prove His divinity. He did them to bring abundant life to those who were ill and downtrodden. Since Jesus is our example, it would be wise for us to consider fruits as something we produce to make life more joyful and fulfilling, not just for ourselves but for life in general. Nothing does this better than Love. Wheat are people who bring love to others in this life. They bring joy and peace to this world just like our Lord did and is doing. Weeds just feed on this love and does not produce anything to make life more abundant. To the contrary, sometimes they make it unpleasant and dreadful. In our life experience, many of us have encountered weeds and wheat. However, not everything that appears to be like a weed is a weed. Therefore, we should not waste our time trying to identify which is which. This is not our duty. Jesus loved everyone the same and many of them turned against him. He did not try to distinguish the weeds from the wheat. He loved them all the same. He is our example to live our lives like wheat.

There are many homeless weeds in the streets. There are many homeless wheat too. Thankfully, it is not our task to discern who is who. I am just grateful that a boy who apparently seemed oblivious to our existence said that he missed our presence. A simple statement which gave us hope and renewed our spirit. Maybe Lucas is a wheat after all.