In today's Gospel reading, we come to the final parables from Matthew 13. Jesus uses a fishing parable, on that would have been so familiar to His Apostles who were fishermen.
"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."
The wicked and the righteous. Into which of those categories do you fall? I believe there's an interesting paradox here. Those who are wicked probably believe they are righteous. And those who are righteous probably feel they are wicked. If we want to avoid the place of wailing and grinding of teeth, we must set aside our wickedness and put on Christ, who is the only righteous one.
Father, when the angels come to separate the wicked from the righteous, may our faith in Christ be the cause of our being counted among the righteous. Amen.
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