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.
Reflect
I am often a prisoner of my schedule. I like to do things as I have planned. If things run
late or get off schedule, I become anxious. Staying on schedule lets me maintain the
illusion of control over my life, flimsy as that illusion may be.
But today’s readings remind us that we are all living by God’s schedule, not ours. As
the Israelites wandered through the desert on their way to the Promised Land, God
uses the cloud rising or staying over the Tent of Meeting to signal to them when they
should rest and when they should move on. The Israelites followed God’s direction,
living in his time and following his schedule.
In the Gospel, Jesus cautions his disciples that the final judgment will happen
according to God’s schedule. The angels will separate the good from the bad at the
end of time. While we may be tempted to judge people or discard them. God calls
us to respond with love and compassion, letting God work in his own time, always
drawing us to him in love and mercy.
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