Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Jeremiah
18:1-6; Matthew 13:47-53)
Too many
good people leave the Church. They help
others and even pray regularly. But they
become disillusioned by the shortcomings of Church leaders. Certainly, clerical abuse moved many to
abandon Church participation. Also, the
dictatorial ways of some bishops have created fallout. Jesus’ parable in today’s gospel predicts
such evil as it assures that evildoers will not be tolerated.
As shown
more fully in a later parable, Jesus’ comparison of the kingdom to a fishnet
describes how both good and bad are found in its confines. Although the kingdom of God extends beyond Church
bounds, the Church certainly is at its nucleus.
By noting both good and bad fish, Jesus is indicating that there will be
both very good and some malicious people in the Church. In the end, he is saying, the evil ones will
be eliminated.
We should
not become disheartened when we see evil compromising the good of the
Church. Prayer for its perpetrators is
in order. Also, we must examine our own
hearts continually so that we don’t contribute to its evil.
