In the parable a farmer was informed in the early spring by his servants that, in spite of his having sowed clean seed in his field, an exceptional crop of darnel weeds was growing up with the wheat.  He realised at once that an enemy had provided himself with a quantity of darnel seed and, under cover of night, had sowed the field with it and then departed as secretly as he had come.  The servants asked the farmer if he wished them to weed them out right away, but the farmer told them that, in spite of the high proportion of darnel plants, he would follow the normal routine, “Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn” (NRSV, Matthew 13:30).

Our Blessed Lord, in response to his disciples’ request, explained the meaning of the parable privately to them afterwards.  Although, through the agency of the Devil, God’s Church would contain bad members as well as good, yet God does not intervene and separate them now but is content to wait until the Day of Judgement when his holy angels “…will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire…Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (NRSV, Matthew 13:41,42,43).