GOSPEL
The good are gathered in baskets and the bad are thrown away.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 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.
The Word of the Lord.
Last call.
Let’s talk about the final judgment. What? Yes, yes, it is real. There will be a final judgment! The devil wants us to downplay its importance: Since God is merciful… anything goes. No one will be condemned. God is too good. Right? And who knows God? The most distant? Who dares to judge God? The problem is not that God lacks love, obviously, since He is love. Up to that point, salvation is guaranteed. But what if I reject salvation? What if I rejected it yesterday? Today? Tomorrow? The problem is that I do not love God above all things yesterday, today, or tomorrow because I am focused on other things that attract my attention more. If I didn’t prioritize Him yesterday, I am not prioritizing Him today, and I won’t give Him priority tomorrow… Do I intend to believe that in the last moment things will change? How am I going to love Him above all things if I have never been interested? The holy fear of God does not consist of being afraid of Him. It consists of fearing for one second of my life without Him!
Putting it into the context of married life:
Jaime: No, no, but I “believe.” God exists…
Marriage Mentor: If you believe that God exists, your life should be oriented toward Him, right? Have you taken the time to know Him? Have you contemplated His admirable vastness?
Jaime: Well, God is there wherever He may be and I am here. I believe that someone has created all of this, but nothing more. I can’t see anything else.
Marriage Mentor: But if He created you, He must have created you for a reason, right? He wants to have a relationship with you, don’t you think?
Jaime: I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.
Marriage Mentor: Are you not interested in knowing the one who created the entire universe? The one who created you? The one who created your wife? The one who gave her to you? The one who created your children? The one who entrusted them to you…? The one who created and gave you everything you love and care about in life?
Jaime: I don’t know; I hadn’t thought about it. Yes, of course I would like to get to know Him!
Marriage Mentor: Do you understand His vastness? His power? His love? Well, desire to know Him. The way is to know Your Mother; she will take you to Her Son, and His Son will show you the Father. All this will be accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit. You only have to do one thing: Want to know Him, but for real. By taking an interest, getting closer to the Church, and through your matrimonial vocation which is your calling to reach Him. And if you don’t want to, or you don’t have time, don’t expect that on the last day you will have more interest than today. Whatever you have to do, do it now, before it is too late. He, God, is waiting for you…
Mother,
Every day of our married and family life, I have the opportunity to discard the bad that distracts me and keep the good that leads me to the Lord. We choose hope. We choose Love. Blessed be God, immense, omnipotent, Holy.