Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Matthew 13: 47-53
July 31, 2025 | Thursday

Today’s Gospel

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a big fishing net, let down into the sea, in which every kind of fish has been caught. When the net is full, it is dragged ashore. Then they sit down and gather the good fish into buckets, but throw the bad away. That is how it will be at the end of time; the angels will go out to separate the wicked from the just, and to throw the wicked into the blazing furnace, where they will weep and gnash their teeth.”

Jesus asked, “Have you understood all these things?” “Yes,” they answered. So he said to them, “Therefore, every teacher of the law, who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven, is like a householder, who can produce from his store things both new and old.”

When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

Today’s Reflection

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a big fishing net, let down into the sea, in which every kind of fish has been caught. When the net is full, it is dragged ashore. Then they sit down and gather the good fish into buckets, but throw the bad away.”

Today’s parable shares a theme with the parables of the wheat and the weeds and the sheep and the goats. Jesus gives a prophetic warning that while both the good and the bad are allowed to coexist in the world, there will be a day of final reckoning when Divine justice will segregate each one from the other—separate the wicked from the just— and the virtuous will then be rewarded and the sinful punished.

Like the day of our earthly demise, we cannot predict when the day of final judgment will come. What is paramount is that until we breathe our last, our lives must be essentially focused on being prepared for it. We get ready for that inevitable day of judgment by imitating Christ and consistently obeying His command to love God and neighbor. Any real relationship with God starts with recognizing our utter dependence on His power, love, and mercy. As we pray and strive to follow His will, we must first chasten our own will to humbly discern that what God wants is not necessarily what we want. We must abandon all attachments and aspirations that are against His precepts and be virtuous, charitable, and compassionate with others. Whenever we sin, as we will, immediately recognize our fault, repent, and reconcile with the Lord, filled with hope that He deems us worthy of entry to the heavenly realm.

/Vulnerasti, 2025