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Gospel: 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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Fishing nets are designed to scoop up everything in their path. They do not discriminate.
Naturally, when such a net is hauled into a boat, it contains all sorts of things: flapping fish, muddy twigs, and debris.
It’s up to the fisherman – not the net – to decide what he wants to keep and what he doesn’t.
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In the Gospel, Jesus likens the Church to a fishing net.
We’re meant to cast ourselves far and wide, gathering as many people as possible into the Church. It’s not up to us to decide who does or doesn’t belong; that power belongs to Christ, the Fisherman.
Yet how often are we tempted to play his role? To decide who’s in and who’s out; who belongs and who doesn’t.
“In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places,” Jesus says.
A place for you. A place for me. And, perhaps, a place for everyone and everything gathered into the net of the Church.
The Lord will make that decision at the end of our lives.
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Our mission as Church is to cast the net far and wide, to embrace our neighbors, and to allow the love of God – made manifest in us – to transform the people around us.
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Image credits: (1) Joel Littlefield (2) A Church for Starving Artists (3) Free Gift From God