Language can create images in our minds that remain with us longer than the words themselves. Reading over today’s Scripture passages reinforced that thought for me.
In the first reading from Jeremiah, we read about “clay in the hand of the potter.” The potter takes his clay and creates; from the earth he fashions something valuable. Isn’t this what we imagine God does for us? “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works!” (Ps. 139:13-14).
The image of God, the master craftsman working with humble materials, can also be found in Isaiah and Romans. God creates us and shapes us, working with any flaws such as sin, to make us into beautiful living vessels ready for Heaven.
The Widely Cast Net
Matthew’s Gospel shares Jesus’ recurring use of the role of the fisherman casting out his net. For first-century Jews and Christians, this was a very familiar image. In the 21st century throughout most of the world, fishing is a huge commercial enterprise. But it is not difficult to imagine a net, big or small, thrown from a ship gathering up whatever is in its path. Someone or something will then sort out the good from the bad, the useful from the junk.
God has cast his net of love out to all; but not every soul caught will receive a place in Paradise. Not every soul opens his eyes, his ears and his heart to the words of Christ and the work of the Church. At the end times, it will be God’s messengers, his angels, who will sort out the good from the bad, the useful from the junk.
Lessons both Old and New
This image of the widely cast net belongs to a series of images found in the parables of Jesus in Matthew chapter 13. Rather than weighty discourses in theology often embraced by the learned, Jesus used figurative language to appeal to the poor and uneducated. But he wanted to make sure his disciples, also not formally educated, understood this language. When they answered, “Yes” he exhorted them to take their understanding of his parables and share that knowledge. The disciple’s role then is as a “scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of Heaven…like the head of the household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” (Mt13:51-52)
We understand Jesus’ words to indicate that we need both the Old Testament and his lessons, our New Testament, to earn our place in the Kingdom of Heaven. These colorful images should not just feed our imaginations but should feed our souls.
