Today's Gospel

Stay Out of the Fire

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we take a few minutes together to reflect on the gospel, to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us toward a word, a phrase, or an idea that challenges us or encourages us, allow God to speak to us where we are in our lives today. The reading today is from the Gospel of Matthew 13:47-53, "'Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels, but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire. There, men will weep and gnash their teeth. Have you understood all this?' They said to him, 'Yes.' And he said to them, 'Therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.' And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there."

What is it that jumps out at you today? Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven again. He's using many, many different parables throughout the Gospel of Matthew to try and engage the people in an understanding that the kingdom of heaven is different to this world, that the ways of God are very different, radically different to the ways of man, and the ways in heaven are radically different to the ways of earth. And in the first part of this parable, the fishermen are gathering the fish and are separating the good from the bad. And then the angels at the end of time are separating the evil from the righteous. And there's the furnace and the fire and the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. And I think we don't pay enough attention to this. I think we tend to think of ourselves as being the good ones and not the bad ones, as being the righteous and not the evil. And of course it isn't as simple as that, right? Because it's not binary. It's like, yes, do we do good things? Yeah, we do. Do we do bad things sometimes? Yeah, we do. But Jesus clearly talks about some experience of fire and weeping and gnashing of teeth that I think none of us wish to experience. And if that is the case, then I think we need to pay serious attention to, okay, Jesus talked about this on many occasions. What is it that we need to do to avoid a destiny like that?

And I think one thing as a starting point is to think that, okay, there are experiences in this world that are heavenly, and there are experiences in this world that are hellish. And many of those experiences, we bring upon ourselves. We contribute to them and maybe even are the direct cause of them. And so by asking ourselves, OK, which of those hellish experiences are we bringing upon ourselves in this life likely provides significant insight as to the actions and behaviors that are likely to lead us toward an eternity of that, which we all, I think, desperately wish to avoid. And so I think it is good. Church has always challenged us to reflect on the last things, to reflect on the fact that we are all going to die one day. There is an afterlife. There are eternal destinations. Where is our life leading us? Where is our relationship with God leading us? Where is our relationship with our neighbors leading us? Have a great day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.