“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” — Matthew 13:47

       “So many faces, so many races. Different voices, different choices. Some are mad, while others laugh. Some live alone with no better half.” So go the first few lines of the famous song, “Kaleidoscope World,” by deceased Filipino rapper Francis Magalona. The song actually reminds me of the different people I met during my days as a full-time missionary, traveling around Eastern Visayas, India and Timor Leste.

       I remember one time in Timor, I had a heart-to-heart talk with one of our local mission volunteers while we were riding at the back of a dump truck. He knew very little English and, at the time, I hadn’t learned how to speak Tetun (the local language) yet. Despite that, we were able to understand each other — with God’s help, of course!

       There are other instances when God showed me the beauty of being united in faith, but they are too many to mention here. Suffice to say, though, that all of us need to be reminded of this truth: God’s people are diverse — like “fish of every kind” — but our common love for Him can break all barriers. Anthony Rodriguez (anthony.r@svrtv.com)

Reflection: No matter how different a person may look or act, God loves him or her just as He loves you.

Lord, allow me to share Your word to every person that I meet today.

When the Master Potter molds us, He never destroys us. He brings new things into our lives to renew us as He has created us to be. Let us not despair over the difficult task ahead of us. God will help us overcome all things through His grace.

Jeremiah 18:1-6

1 This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Rise up, be off to the potter’s house; there I will give you my message.” 3 I went down to the potter’s house and there he was, working at the wheel. 4 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. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “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.”

Psalm 146:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R: Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

1 Praise the Lord, O my soul; 2 I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I live. (R) 3 Put not your trust in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. 4 When his spirit departs he returns to his earth; on that day his plans perish. (R) 5Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord, his God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. (R)

We need to do a little “spring cleaning” in our lives. This will help us focus on discipleship and Jesus who should be the most important person for us. Is this what you want, too?

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son.

Matthew 13:47-53

47 Jesus said to the disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. 48 When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. 49 Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” 51 Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” 52 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.” 53 When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

think: Let us not despair over the difficult task ahead of us. God will help us to overcome all things through His grace.

Thank You Lord for: __________________

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Judith 13-16  

ASSORTED FISH

Being an archipelago, many of the readers in the Philippines are familiar with the work of fishermen. Also for the audience of Jesus, the parable of the fishermen pulling in their nets and selecting the good fish (ritually clean) from the bad ones (ritually unclean) was very vivid.

       The two most common ways of fishing in Jesus’ time were, first, with a casting-net which was thrown from the shore, and second, the drag-net which was let down into the waters from a boat. As the boat moved through the waters, the drag-net was drawn and indiscriminately took in all kinds of fish. It usually took several men to haul such a net to shore. What is Jesus’ point here? Just as a drag-net catches every kind of fish in the sea, so the church acts as God’s instrument for gathering in all who will come.

       This parable comes at the conclusion of a long discourse in which Jesus uses a series of images very familiar to His audience — a sower, wheat and weeds, mustard seed, yeast, pearls, fish. Jesus uses all these images, introducing them with “the Kingdom of God is like” to get the crowd and the disciples to understand their role in God’s plan for the world. He used the parable of the net pulled to illustrate the Last Judgment, which was also familiar to His first listeners.

       Until that moment — and nobody knows when it will come — the Church lowers the “nets” into the ocean of human societies and tries to bring in as many as possible into God’s Kingdom. The nets of the Church also bring in “good and bad fish.” We find in the Church saints and sinners side by side. Just as the drag-net does not or cannot discriminate, so the Church does not discriminate between the good and the bad, the useless and the useful. God’s Kingdom is open to all who will accept and believe. But there will come a time of separation — when the angels will send the good and the bad to their respective destinations. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

REFLECTION QUESTION: Looking at your response to God’s love, will you probably be collected together with the “good fish”?

Lord, You gave me free will to choose my destiny. May Your love always inflame me to do Your will so that, in the end, I will be “collected” together with the good fish. Amen.