THURSDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, JULY 28, 2022

MASS READINGS

A Gospel according to MT 13:47-53

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.

REFLECTION

"The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace."

Nowadays nobody talks about Hell and eternal punishment. I guess people got tired of hearing about fire and brimstone and we rather hear positive things.

Last year I was teaching catechism to third grade children. When we touched the subject of hell many of them physically recoiled at the thought and told me they didn't want to hear about it. Granted I was not telling them the visions of St. Faustina, or from Sts. Jacinta and Franciso Marto. Simply they were told that if we choose the path of sin we would end up in hell.

Maybe we want to hear that no matter how flawed we are, we will always have a chance of salvation, even after death. We might even believe "we are not thaaat bad". So what are we? What am I?

We pray, true. And we also do good deeds, true. But, why do we do those deeds? So many good things to choose from. Do I ask God to show me which is the path He wants me to follow? Or do I go as I please thinking all is good? Also do I have the right intention when I do these deeds? At the end of the day, did I serve God? Or did I serve my ego?

As humans, we have the great talent of deceiving ourselves into thinking we are always right. That is why it is important to have a spiritual director to guide us into the correct path.

Let us pray the PAPA Prayer for Priests so our priests can guide our souls into Heaven.

God bless y'all!