Wheat and Grapes: Symbols of Redemption and Justice
November 26, 2024 - Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Revelation 14:14-19
The first sentence of John's vision that we hear today introduces someone "sitting on the cloud, one who looked like a son of man" (Rev. 14:14). A few centuries before John's writing, Daniel captured a similar vision of someone resembling a human person approaching the Almighty God and receiving from Him everlasting dominion; "all peoples, nations, and languages" were obliged to serve that mysterious person (see Daniel 7:13-14). With the crown on His head and a sickle in His hand, the glorified Jesus Christ is depicted as King and Judge.
At the beginning of the Gospels, when John the Baptist was preparing the way for the Lord, he spoke about "the wrath to come" (Luke 3:7) and someone who "has His winnowing fork in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:12). Yet, when Jesus came, He arrived without any winnowing fork or trace of wrath. He was the embodiment of God's mercy, and even from the cross, He prayed for His persecutors: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). However, Jesus promised that He would come again, and John's vision refers to that event.
In the Diary of St. Faustina, we find this statement of Jesus: "Before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy." This door of mercy is wide open for each individual until death and for the entire world until the end of the age. Then, Jesus continues, saying: "He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice" (Diary, 1146). In today's passage, we see two types of harvest. The first harvest represents the gathering of the righteous into God's kingdom. In the preaching of John the Baptist and one of Jesus' parables, the righteous are represented by wheat (see Matt. 3:12; 13:24-30). The wheat harvest was celebrated during the Feast of Pentecost, and the primary use of wheat in ancient Palestine was for making bread.
Thus, it can be said that the gathering of the righteous into Christ's barns began with Pentecost, the feast that celebrated the sending of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus' followers and the birth to the Church. Moreover, like bread, which is a staple food in the diet of many people, we are called to bring about unity in the world and, following Jesus, to offer our lives for others.
On the other hand, the harvest of grapes is associated with God's judgment over sin, evil, and injustice. The shocking imagery of this judgment is drawn from the Book of Isaiah (see Is. 63:1-3), but the idea of God judging the wicked is a consistent theme throughout the Bible (see Gen. 6:9-7:24; 19:1-29; Amos 1:1-2:5). Even Jesus, while explaining the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, said: "The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 13:41-42).
Finally, it is worth highlighting one point regarding the timing of both harvests. While teaching His disciples about the end of the ages, Jesus said: "Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32). Today's passage presents a scene in which the Father finally reveals that day and hour to His Son through an angel who came out of the heavenly temple (see Rev. 14:15).