The Lord casts the net…
Introduction
Jeremiah looks at the work of a potter. If the potter sees his work is misshapen, he destroys it and tries anew. God’s people are clay in God’s hands. If they are not faithful, God will break them, but when they are converted, he tries again with them and they become precious.
The parable about the net full of fish, good and bad, is very close to the parable heard a few days ago about the wheat and the weeds. It ends with the statement that the scribe in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. Jesus came “not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete them.” Therefore the disciple, when he welcomes what is new, does not reject what is old. He treasures both.
1 Reading Jeremiah 18:1-6
This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Rise up, be off to the potter’s house;
there I will give you my message.
I went down to the potter’s house and there he was,
working at the wheel.
Whenever the object of clay which he was making
turned out badly in his hand,
he tried again,
making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:
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.
Responsorial Psalm 146:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6ab
R. (5a) Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob. or R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob. or R. Alleluia.
Put not your trust in princes,
in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.
When his spirit departs he returns to his earth;
on that day his plans perish.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob. or R. Alleluia.
Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God.
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob. or R. Alleluia.
Alleluia cf. ACTS 16:14b
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Open our heart, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
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.
Commentary
The fishermen of Jesus’s time had two ways of fishing: they would use either a net that would be cast into the sea and drawn in after a pause, or a drag-net that would be lowered into the waters and dragged along as the boat moved. In today’s parable, Jesus talks of a drag-net that takes in whatever that comes its way, without any discrimination. Then, only after the net is pulled ashore would the separation of the good from the bad begin.
We, the Church, are asked to be fishers of people. Thus, our task is to haul in people without prejudice, without judging their merits or demerits. As someone rightly said, the Church consists of all SAINTS, all SOULS, and all SORTS. For those who mock your Church as full of sinners, not “born-again”, tell them Jesus threw the net and caught you. In fact, he dragged you offshore. Tell them it is the task of God to judge. For God alone knows what is in the hearts of people. O Lord, give me an undying zeal for souls and help me receive everyone with open arms into your body, the Church.
Blessing
We must make the Lord visible today in a way our times understand and make our world more and more God’s world and kingdom. May you do so with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!