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Gospel Reading for July 31, 2025 – Matthew 13: 47-53
ALWAYS CONSISTENT
Jesus said to the disciples: “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.”
“Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” 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.” When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.
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Everyone is invited to take part in building God’s Kingdom, but not everyone perseveres. Like Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, “. . . some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown (Matthew 13: 1-9).
Only the good soil where the seed (Word of God) was sown will be able to PERSEVERE in God’s Kingdom. Religion cannot be like a light switch that we can turn on or off as we want. To have a religion means to have a Way of Life that is consistent with its Creed, its tenets, its teachings. The Kingdom of God is ALWAYS CONSISTENT. What it is, will forever be.
The gospel doesn’t say who will be putting into buckets the good fish or who will throw away the bad. If we refuse to build God’s Kingdom on earth by not living in accordance with the teachings of Jesus, then we will be the one throwing ourselves away!
Lord Jesus, we pray that we will be among the ones put into buckets or will be chosen by the angels at the end of the age!
