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. Matthew 13:47-53

Reflection:

Since Jesus' time we have lived our lives as if we will always have a new day to see. Yet in today's Gospel he warns of how we live our life and how we will all be separated according to how well we did or not did at the end of the age.

This reminds me of a time when I was a kid, and during recess we were to pick teams. Anyone ever go through this? While standing in a row and waiting, was to put it mildly quite nerve wracking, unless you were popular, you knew you would be chosen right away. It wasn't comfortable, believe me.

Because of that experience, this reading reminded me of that time. So imagine waiting to be picked for a team, one is the fiery furnace where only the wicked get picked. The other is heaven where the good are chosen.

Which team are we going to be picked for? Do any really want the fiery furnace as a home team. Or is heaven the team we are all hoping to be chosen for. It's up to you now, isn't it. This is where we take inventory of our lives, our souls and purge the sins from our life. We are to sort through our lives and remove the old way, that of sin and replace it with new, the good. Just like when we clean out our closets, pantries of old stuff. We take stock of what we have remove the old and replace it with new and fresh stock.

While we have time, don't you think it is also time for us to take stock of our lives and change a few things that point us in the direction of the fiery furnace and clean out our dirty souls.

Jesus said to his disciples:"The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it." Matthew 13:44-46

Reflection:

We often read about those who have great money and how they set no limit when it comes to purchasing something of great value, just so they can have it under lock and key and be the name of the person who owns it. This then is their hidden treasure. Today when we purchase something of value, we guard it so well that no one is to touch, come near or breath on it.

Whatever we buy, no matter what price we pay for it, this is our treasure. There is a saying one's mans junk is another man's treasure. It seems this is a saying for the tag sale, and flea market world, because it is there we buy used goods that once belonged to another. But this happens to be material treasure that we sell all to purchase what we see as a treasure of immeasurable value.

How then do we apply the Kingdom of God then? Well, just like material gain, when we discover God we go to the ends of the earth to buy and keep what we discovered a secret. In this context of buy, it is in the meaning of buying our life by going to confession and purchasing our souls back. In the discovery of the Kingdom of God, we then seek at a great price freedom from sin, to attain the greatest treasure, the Face of God. It is selling all that we hold dear in our hearts that hold us in the material world, that free us, and with joy we go and buy the treasure to keep it with us always.

Is this possible? Yes it is. When God enters your life and you find the greatest most treasured thing that a person will ever have, you will go to great lengths to keep Him there.

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds."The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field.It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'" He spoke to them another parable."The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened." All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world. Matthew 13:31-35

Reflection:

What does gossip do, besides possibly destroying a persons reputation or life, or bringing fruitfulness when it is done in truth and not maliciousness. It spreads like wildfire, especially when it has to do with someone who is well known. Then everyone knows.

Jesus is well known, we hear talk about him far and wide. Some of the gossip is good, and some is not so good, depending on who is out to destroy Him. Today we read of a parable of a mustard seed, and how we are to understand how it is liken to heaven.

Well when we look at gossip, and the good and bad of it, then the mustard seed should be far easier to understand. Heaven is huge, much bigger than any of us can imagine. But faith in this is like a mustard seed, it starts out small then grows to it's greatest. It reaches heaven. Just as gossip does the same about Jesus, it reaches the farthest corners of the earth. It is the faith in the truth of God and His Holy Word that blossoms like a tree from the tiny seed of faith.

We all have the opportunity to be this seed, to spread and grow to the farthest reaches of heaven. Where our faith is constantly growing ever higher