Daily Gospel Reflection for July 31, 2014

Today's Gospel: Matthew 13:47-53

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.”

When set alongside the Old Testament Reading for today, both it and the Gospel speak of separating what is good from what is not. In the Gospel, both good and bad fish are caught up in the net. Good fish are put into buckets and kept. Bad ones are thrown away. Jesus then makes it clear that at the end of the age these bad ones will be thrown into the fiery furnace, “where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

Yet in the First Reading, the potter who is working with clay is able to make whatever he desires out of the clay regardless of how it initially turns out in his hands. So what are we to make of this? Is there an ultimate judgment between what is good and what is not? Or is nothing impossible for God to redeem?

Ponder:

Jesus asks “Do you understand all these things?” Those that reply yes, he puts at the head of the household to bring both old a new things out from the store room. What might this mean?

Pray:

Ad majoram Dei gloriam
Mold me, that I might mold others
So that we might become more fully
What we are meant to be
Throw us, like clay
Prove us in the furnace
Break us down
So that every bit may be accounted for
And none go to waste
In what is scattered and held together
May we behold you in all things

Copyright 2014 Jay Cuasay