Matthew 13:47-53

Exodus 40:16-21, 34-38

Psalm 84:3, 4, 5-6a and 8a, 11

Matthew 13:47-53

Jesus said to the disciples:

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,

which collects fish of every kind.

When it is full they haul it ashore

and sit down to put what is good into buckets.

What is bad they throw away.

Thus it will be at the end of the age.

The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous

and throw them into the fiery furnace,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

“Do you understand all these things?”

They answered, “Yes.”

And he replied,

“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven

is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom

both the new and the old.”

When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I pray today that I welcome the seed of the kingdom with good soil, that I be a good seed which produces abundant wheat in the kingdom, that I dwell safely in the branches of the kingdom, that I be yeast that transforms society with charity and justice, that I sell all that I have to gain the treasure of the kingdom, that I welcome the redemption purchased by your Son, and that I am a righteous fish welcomed into the bucket of eternal life.

Encountering the Word of God

1. A Mixture of Good and Evil in the Kingdom: There is one of the teachings of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven that is especially hard to accept – the teaching that both good and evil will be present in the kingdom until the end of this world and this age. We can accept that the word of God will be rejected or accepted. We can accept that the kingdom will transform society and make it more charitable and just. We can accept that the kingdom is worth more than any earthly treasure. But why is it allowed to have both weeds and wheat (Matthew 13:24-43), good fish and bad fish, treasure and trash (Matthew 13:47-50)? When we see, experience, or hear about sinful and scandalous actions in the Church, it can rock our faith to the core. But the parables of the kingdom can help here. Jesus knows and teaches us that this is how it will be throughout the course of history. 

2. Casting the Nets of Salvation: At least four of Jesus’ twelve apostles were fishermen. They understood the work of casting good nets into the sea. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied almost six hundred years before the coming of Jesus Christ, that the Lord would one day send out many fishermen to catch the people of Israel scattered among the sea of the Gentile nations (Jeremiah 16:16). Thus, the net in the parable can be understood as the Church founded by Christ and entrusted to Galilean fishermen. The net of salvation is cast into the sea of the world and gathers in saints and sinners, sheep and wolves, the pure of heart and hypocrites, those striving for holiness and those resisting God’s grace. 

3. Two Judgments: Who among us can truly judge the human heart? The parable teaches us that only God can truly judge. At the moment of our death and again, at the end of time, we will be judged by God. On our particular judgment at our death, CCC, 1022 teaches: “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven – through a purification or immediately – or immediate and everlasting damnation.” On the final judgment at the end of time, CCC, 1038 teaches: “The resurrection of all the dead, ‘of both the just and the unjust’ (Acts 24:15), will precede the Last Judgment. This will be ‘the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man’s] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment’ (John 5:28-29). Then Christ will come ‘in his glory, and all the angels with him. … Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. … And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life’ (Matt. 25:31, 32, 46).”

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the householder. You sowed the good seed that has sprouted and grown into the Church. Do not let me be discouraged by the presence of evil in the world or even in the Church. May I be an example of conversion and repentance for all those I encounter.

Living the Word of God: What have been my thoughts about and attitude towards the scandals and evil in the Church over the past few decades? Do I know people who have left because of the scandals? How can my meditation on and understanding of the parables of the weeds and the net be beneficial when I reach out to those disaffected?