The prayer group decided to have a plant sale, to raise
funds for the parish. How could the
pastor, Father Diotrophes object to that?
He couldn't think of any good reason to object, but he knew he was going
to wish he could say no. Whatever this
prayer group attempted to do always involved him and trouble.
The day came. They
didn’t have much, just one table of plants.
Most of them were sold at Saturday’s Mass. The early morning Sunday Mass left only a few
sickly plants and Father suggested that they end the sale and dispose of those
plants.
He thought they did.
They didn’t. They
thought it was such a waste to throw away living plants, so they planted them
in the garden --the pastor’s garden. The
prayer group thought the pastor would like these plants. They’re called bishop’s weed.
Little did they know that bishop’s weed is notorious for
taking over a garden. Bishop’s weed grows quickly and chokes out the other plants. Lucky for the prayer group, Father Diotrophes
never could figure out how the goutweed came to his garden. He had a dickens of a time trying to dig it
out. In addition, somehow the pastor picked up poison ivy.
While the pastor labored to rid his garden of the weeds, the
prayer group was reminded of Matt. 13:24-30, the parable of the weeds being
planted among the wheat. The farmer let
them both grow together. At the end of
the season, the wheat could be easily distinguished from the weeds, and so the
wheat was harvested.
In this case however, the native garden plants weren't
allowed to grow because the bishop’s weed/goutweed, choked everything in its
way. The prayer group was wise to stay
under the radar, in this case.
