Leave them for until the harvest. Maybe they will change?

Scriptures and comments on Mass Readings for Saturday of the Sixteenth week in Ordinary Time       27 July 2013

First Reading: Exodus 24:3-8. 

When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, "We will do everything that the LORD has told us."

Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD,

Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar. Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."

Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his."

 Psalm 50 

God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,

from the rising of the sun to its setting.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
 
“Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
 
“Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfil your vows to the Most High.
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me.”
 
Matt 13:24-30. 

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.  When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.  The slaves of the householder came to him and said, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?'

He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'

He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.

Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

 Commentary of the day :

A lot of people have used this parable of Our Lord’s to justify their defence of pedophile priests saying, “Leave them to repent and let the Lord judge them”.
But the sort of evil in the world that our Lord was referring to, did not in my opinion, include those who are a danger to the souls of young people. Those types Jesus specifically mentioned as deserving great millstones tied around their necks and be thrown into the sea (Mark 9:42)

I do believe in forgiveness and giving people a second chance as Jesus taught us, and that is why Jesus told this parable. He wanted to tell us that you don't need to wait for a person to say sorry, you need to offer them chances to repent. To remind us to give people a chance to change and grow, so offer that opportunity to someone who has offended you.

 Vatican Council II

 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church « Lumen gentium », §33
 "Let them grow together until harvest"

 The laity are gathered together in the People of God and make up the Body of Christ under one head (1Co 12,12; Col 2,19). Whoever they are, they are called upon, as living members, to expend all their energy for the growth of the Church and its continuous sanctification, since this very energy is a gift of the Creator and a blessing of the Redeemer.The lay apostolate, however, is a participation in the salvific mission of the Church itself. Through their baptism and confirmation all are commissioned to that apostolate by the Lord Himself. Moreover, by the sacraments, especially holy Eucharist, that charity toward God and man which is the soul of the apostolate is communicated and nourished. Now the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth. Thus every layman, in virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church itself "according to the measure of Christ's bestowal" (Eph 4,7)...Upon all the laity, therefore, rests the noble duty of working to extend the divine plan of salvation to all men of each epoch and in every land. Consequently, may every opportunity be given them so that, according to their abilities and the needs of the times, they may zealously participate in the saving work of the Church.