THE CLOUD, THE DRAGNET

Homily for August 1^st, 2013. Exod. 40:16-21, 34-38; Matt.13:47-53.

          “Whenever the cloud rose … the people of Israel would set out on their journey.” This cloud appears repeatedly in Holy Scripture. There was a cloud on Mt. Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. A cloud appeared at Jesus’ baptism, and again at his transfiguration. At his ascension “a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). In every case, the cloud is a sign of God’s presence.

          Is there someone here who is in a cloud? It shuts out the sunshine of God’s love. You cannot see the way ahead. God seems to you to be absent. In reality he is with you: hidden, yes, but still close. Surrounded by the cloud of God’s presence and glory, “we walk by faith, not by sight,” St. Paul tells us (2 Cor. 5:7). We come here to ask God to strengthen that faith.

          Today’s gospel reading, about the dragnet cast into the sea, which collects everything in its path, immediately follows the explanation of last Saturday’s parable of the weeds among the wheat. It has the same message. Jesus’ first hearers would easily have understood that message. They were familiar with dietary laws, which separated unclean foods from those they were permitted to eat. Sea creatures without fins or scales were unclean, and hence inedible. So once the net was brought ashore, there must be a selection. The clean fish are put into buckets and taken to market. Everything else is thrown away. “Thus it will be at the end of the age,” Jesus tells us. “The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.”

          God is not mocked, Jesus is assuring us. The power of evil, of which we see signs daily in the morning headlines, and on the evening news on TV, is temporary. In the end, goodness will triumph, and evil will be burned up in the flames of God’s justice. That too is the gospel. That is the good news.