“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.”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus continues to explain the kingdom of heaven to his disciples through parables. To describe to them the “end of the age,” he likens the sorting of fish after being collected from the sea to the separation of the wicked and the righteous in the fullness of time. In the first reading, God also has his hands upon his people when he says to Jeremiah: “Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.”
God, you gave me life and your hand remains in my life. Help me see that you are present every day in everything I do and that I need your grace to know and do your will. This is not to wallow in my limitations and sinful nature but to recognize you, Lord, in the gifts you present daily in the world around me and in the people I encounter. Most of all, help me understand the great gift of freedom that you have given me in bringing into reality the mystical body of Christ, the Church. To “live and move and have our being” in you, God, is to know joy.
The Gospel reading causes me to question how I use the things of this world. Do I want fame or wealth or professional success? Do I do what I do each day for the glory of God or to pursue an ever-shifting goal to succeed for the sake of success? What does that even mean to pursue and knock down goal after goal? Show me, God, to use the things of this world in a way that serves you and pleases you. I know I am free to do your will, and I choose to do it. Teach me your will; I am clay in your hands.