There are good and there are bad, and there will be accountability. In the first reading, Jeremiah sees the Lord as a potter who keeps the good pieces and throws away the bad. The good creations are kept, and the bad are reworked into something better. The Lord too, will keep the good creations and not the bad.
In the Gospel Jesus says at the end times the good will be separated from the bad. Now there is a big mix, like a haul from a fishing net with all the fish, good and bad. On the ship, the fish will be separated into buckets, those to keep and those to throw away. In the end, the good, the ‘good pots,’ those who put their faith and hope in the Lord will be saved and will see the Kingdom of God. Those ‘bad pots’ who put their faith in men will not be saved and will be cast into the fires of hell. There is no salvation in trusting in princes. Men cannot give salvation, and bad men will lead others astray. Faith and hope in the Lord is the road to salvation. The bad fish are cast aside like the bad pots, and the bad people will be cast into hell. But the good fish are kept like the good pots and the good people will see the wonders of heaven. “Put not your trust in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation…Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD, his God.”
The world seems like a mess now, like a mixed pile of fish from the net, but it will all be sorted out in the end, good and bad in the next world.
Tamora Whitney
I teach in the English department. I teach composition and literature and Critical Issues -- a class that has a component on Jesuit values.
I like writing these reflections because it makes me think more deeply about the scripture and think about how to integrate the ideas into my own life and how to share these ideas with others.
