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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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There were two different kinds of nets the Apostles would’ve used as fishermen. Each had its own name. One was a casting net. It was tied to a fisherman’s arm then thrown into the sea while standing along the shoreline.
The second was a drag net, which was thrown out of the back of a fisherman’s boat. Once he started accelerating, the net would sink into the water, collecting whatever was in its path. Only after the net was hauled ashore, could the fisherman separate the good from the rotten fish.
It’s this – the second type of net, the drag net – which Jesus is referring to in today’s Gospel.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,” he says, “which collects fish of every kind. When it is full, they haul it ashore.”
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There are three movements happening here.
First, the net is cast. Second, it collects everything in its path. Third, the contents are revealed – and judged.
We are living in that second movement.
The Church is the fishing net already cast into the sea. It is our role and responsibility to bring as many people into it as possible.
Judgment doesn’t happen until the end of time, when the net is hauled ashore and Christ the Fisherman determines who’s in versus who’s out.
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This parable may leave some feeling challenged while others comforted, as the Lord instructs us plainly to welcome all into the Church. He will separate who is good from who is bad at the end of the age.
How does this parable fit with my own understanding and experience of the Church?
Do I seek to welcome all? Do I judge others prematurely, prior to the net reaching the shore?
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“The kingdom of heaven … collects fish of every kind,” the Lord says.
May we do as we are told, casting our nets far and wide.
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Image credits: (1) GotQuestions.org (2) kindlings.org (3) MyWaterEarth&Sky