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How do we deal with people who are mean, petty and spiteful, in person and online? Today’s Gospel, the Parable of the “Wheat and the Tares,” give us a clue (Mt 13:24-30). Thread: 
People can do mean things. In fact that word—“mean”—needs, I would suggest, to be considered more by the theological community. Not great sins, or social sins, but just mean, spiteful actions that seem to defy explanation.
Today Jesus gives us the parable of a man who spitefully and anonymously sows weeds into another man’s wheat field. He does this in a most cowardly way, by waiting until everyone is asleep.
When the plants grow, the farmer’s servants tell their master about the presence of the weeds. The farmer understands immediately: “An enemy has done this.” It probably enraged him to know that his field, upon which he had lavished so much care, was being targeted.
The farmer also probably felt incapable of responding and preventing future attacks. How could he? He didn’t know the identity of “the enemy,” who hid his destructive acts behind anonymity.
Why did the enemy do it? Why does anyone do mean things? He probably thought he had a good reason. Mean people usually have some excuse for their actions. (Think of people who “sow” spite on social media.) And why anonymously? Probably cowardice.
Perhaps the “enemy” had a dispute with the farmer. Then why doesn’t he approach the farmer and speak with him respectfully? Again, probably cowardice. Even so, why do something so obviously spiteful? Again, we turn to that word: he’s probably just “mean.”
We are always called to oppose great evil and social sin. But often with mean and petty actions—a cruel remark that passes before we can respond, a overheard put-down of someone else, a hateful anonymous comment on social media—one sometimes feels powerless to respond.
This is why it’s helpful to look at the farmer. Does he give up farming? No. Does he ask his servants to uproot all the plants together? No. He continues to do what good he can: he continues to farm. He knows that, in the end, the wheat and weeds will be separated.
The end of the Jesus’s parable, then, works on two levels. The farmer continues his work. He is thus a model for human beings: we continue to do good in the face of mean and spiteful acts. And he is a model for God, too: the farmer will judge what is good and bad.
In other words, God will judge, and take care, of the mean and spiteful actors. Leave the judgments to God.
In the meantime, be like the farmer: continue to do good!
