Introductory Prayer and Petition:  "I thank you, Father, for the immense love you showed me in creating me and redeeming me, giving me this time with you, spending this time with me, intervening in my life. I want to love you in a real way, not abstractly or in theory only. I want to love you today, and not tomorrow. I want to love you here where you have placed me and not somewhere else in my dreams. I want to love you in your Church. I want to love you in the people that you place in my path." 

Gospel: Mt 13:47-50 

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that is cast into the sea and brings in a haul of all kinds of fish. When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore. And then sitting down they collect the good ones in baskets and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time. The Angels will appear and separate the wicked from the upright, to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. 

1.  "To What Shall I Compare the Kingdom of Heaven?" 

With this parable Jesus has made a change in the way he has been talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. The parables in this chapter of Matthew's Gospel started with the Parable of the Sower. He spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven being like a field in which good seed was sown, with somebody else coming along and sowing the bad seed. He spoke about the Kingdom as being a mustard seed that we sow in the field and that grows. He spoke about the Kingdom of God being like the yeast that a woman takes and mixes into the rest of the dough. He said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field that someone finds... he hides it and goes and sells everything and comes and buys that field. And finally that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man looking for fine pearls: when he finds the most valuable one, he goes and sells everything in order to buy that one. 

All of these parables so far have been talking about the Kingdom of God as something that is here and now. Something that we are in, something that we're working in, that is active in our souls. And now in this parable Jesus switches and speaks about the Kingdom of God as something that is still to come. He speaks about the relationship between this Kingdom of God and the future life at the end of time. It is another aspect of this Kingdom, where all the work we do in the Kingdom has to lead us. 

And Jesus seems to want to get across to us one particular message, and it is what we're going to reflect on. "The kingdom is like a drag net that is cast into the sea and brings in a haul of all kinds of fish." The end of time is just as unexpected and sudden as a net that drops into the water and is pulled along behind the boat and catches these fish. Just as sudden as that. 

2.  Caught.

When it is full, the fishermen haul the net ashore. And then they do the all-important thing. They sit down and start sorting out. They pick the good fish and throw away those that are no use. And Jesus said, "This is the way it is going to be at the end of time. The Angels will appear and separate the wicked from the upright." 

What the Angels are going to do at the end of time is not simply to check and see how God has made us, and separate us according to the qualities that God has given us, but according to our wickedness and uprightness. In other words, according to what we have done with those things that God has given us and whether we have lived in a wicked way, or if we have lived in an upright way. What do they recognize in each one of those people? I will be one of them - will they recognize in me the signs of the Kingdom that Jesus has talked about in the previous parables? 

Will they see in me somebody who searched for that fine Pearl and when he found it, recognized its value and beauty, and had the good sense to sell everything else just in order to possess this Pearl? 

Will they see me as someone who went and recognized the treasure in that field, and sold everything else in order to buy it? 

When the Angels find me will they look at me and recognize the leaven that worked among others? Will they see in me somebody who spent his whole lives transforming the world around him, transforming himself as he changed those around him, or will they find me no different from those I should have changed? Would they find just the flat dough of the world in my life, unrisen? 

And when those Angels have a look at my life, when they look for the kingdom of God in me, when they look for that seed, the Baptism that I received, will they find just a dead seed? Or will they find a wonderful tree? A life that has been transformed, a life that is full of virtue, a life that has been spent in good action and in doing good to those who hate me, those who persecute me, and always serving my neighbor. 

Take a few moments to see this new perspective of the Kingdom that Jesus gives to us. The Kingdom is something that we will enter into. Take a look at how the Kingdom is developing in you. Ask yourself, "How are my priorities, the way I live, my choices, the things that I think are worthwhile, the things that I am willing to sacrifice for? Are they along the lines that Jesus spoke about in the previous parables? Or is there something more that I have got to ask his help for as I work towards building the Kingdom in me?" 

3.  Thank you, Lord.

Lord Jesus, I thank you for speaking this parable, because so often I get caught up with the immediate things, the immediate things that I have to do and also the immediate weight of what you ask me to do. And I don't see beyond what it costs me when you offer me the Pearl of your Kingdom. I don't see the Pearl. I see instead all that I have to sell in order to possess it. When you offer me the field with the treasure in it, I don't look at the treasure. I just look at those things that I have to sacrifice and sell off in order to buy it if I want it. 

You invite me to look at what is coming in the future life. You ask me to look at Heaven, which is awaiting me, but also you ask me to realize that what is going to open the doors of Heaven is the kingdom that I already live in my heart - something that I can only do with your grace, and persevere in only with your help. But let me never lose sight of the fact that there are hopes and expectations that you have for me. The greatest thing that I can do, the greatest thing I will ever see will be the joy on your face if you can one day say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And you can receive me as you want to receive me, among the upright, and bring me into the True Kingdom of Heaven. 

When you finished telling this parable you asked the apostles, did they understand all of these things and they said, "Yes." There was much that they didn't understand until after you died and rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit. If you asked me now, do I understand all these things, I would probably say, "Yes." But I will still find them a struggle. So, I ask you for true understanding, the simplicity of those who believe in you, and trust in you, and hope in you; for the simplicity and strength and depth of Mary in which she understood all of these things. And then she lived according to them. 

Conversation with Christ:   So, as a final moment in my meditation I just want to take these next moments on my own, to personally to ask you for a true understanding; an understanding that will become action, so that today and tomorrow I can turn the things that you tell me about yourself in your kingdom into actions. 

I give you thanks Lord, for having invited me too, and being with me in this meditation; this time of prayer. I thank you for the good thoughts, the good affections, and the beginnings of good resolutions that you have placed in my heart during the meditation. I thank you for all the life you have given me, and for the grace that I need so much to move my heart and move my generosity. I am sorry if in some moment I have been distracted; gone off on tangents; been less attentive to your presence. But I am asking in this petition to make up for those graces that I might have missed. 

And I also pray for each one of my brothers and sisters: I pray for each one who wants to follow you. Among the thoughts you placed in my heart during this prayer, I know there is one in particular that I can apply today - I now offer it to you. 

Questionnaire:   This optional questionnaire is intended to help you to examine your life in the light of the inspirations God just gave you in these moments you shared with him. 

1. What struck me most about the parable of the fish and the angels, what was the major message I got from it? 

2. Have I begun to change the world around me, the one I touch: friends, family, etc?