Recently and out of the “blue sky” one of my grandsons contacted my wife, Anna. He said “Grandma, I love you so much. Can I come and visit?” We had not heard from him in a year, so my wife said “Yes!” However, there other things that we were not aware. The circumstance of the visit that my wife and I didn’t know was that my grandson had a warrant out for his arrest, and he was looking for escape.
In our Gospel today Jesus says, ” 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.” Jesus goes on to talk of other things, but this passage caused me to think.
There is good and bad in all of us. We are by nature sinners. Our Saint of the day is Saint Jerome. He is a Doctor of the Church and is most famous for translating the Bible into Latin, also known as, the Vulgate Bible. A Wikipedia quote is as follows. “As a student, Jerome engaged in the superficial escapades and sexual experimentation of students in Rome; he indulged himself quite casually, but he suffered terrible bouts of guilt afterwards. To appease his conscience, on Sundays he visited the sepulchers of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. This experience reminded him of the terrors of hell:”
Again, we all have good and bad in us. I am most humble by the prospect that God uses the imperfect in all of us for the good of the Church and the expansion of the Kingdom of God on earth ( as it is in heaven ) . It really humbles me that sometime He uses me. Yes, He uses everyone of us! He certainly used Saint Jerome. Our life stories are not complete.
How do we change our lives like Saint Jerome to throw out the bad?
Saint Jerome came to realize that in the end the “fiery furnace” is not where any of us want to end up. As long as there is life in us we have the opportunity to throw out the bad.
Periodically, my wife or I go through our refrigerator. We throw out the old, use the things that are about to expire and keep the good. Our souls are much like that refrigerator. We need daily cleaning.
Just now from our readings in Matthew 13:47-52, Jesus says,
” Do you understand all these things?”
I think that I do but in the back of my head, I wonder if I miss something just like my refrigerator. My mission today is to do the cleaning my soul needs.
God Love you always
Bob Burford
PS: Please pray for Peace in the Ukraine. Pray for the victims of hurricane Ian. Pray for cancer victims and their caregivers.
