The wheat and the tares grow up together,Though it could hardly be saidThat they are “birds of a feather.”-Mary T. Hoffman Wheat and TaresIn this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus employs another parable to teach us. It is a story that his immediate audience–many of whom were farmers themselves–would have understood quite well. Tares were one of the curses against which a farmer had to toil.Tares are weeds. In the early days it is quite impossible to tell them apart from the wheat. When both had grown a little, the farmer can distinguish them but by this time their roots are so intertwined that the tares cannot be weeded out without destroying some of the wheat.