Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Matthew (13: 24-30) in which Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a good man who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat.

Today, Fr Paul says, we hear another parable in which Matthew, as he likes doing, has contrasting figures. Matthew is teaching that the Church includes bad as well as the good or it can be addressed to each of us, personally, because in each of us there is good and bad.

As the Gospel makes the point, sometimes it is not easy to tell the difference and so the challenge of the Gospel today is to keep in mind that the reality of the Church is that we are a mixed community in action.