Jesus continues today with another parable of the Kingdom — this time, using the image of a fishing net. For those of us in landlocked Leicester, it may not be a daily image, but for the first disciples—many of them fishermen—it would have hit close to home.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.”

The net is not selective—it draws in everything. Large fish, small fish, good, bad, useful, and inedible. The Church, too, casts a wide net. In her visible structure, the Church gathers together saints and sinners, the devout and the doubtful, the reverent and the rowdy.

This is a good reminder that membership in the Church is not the same as holiness. Just being inside the net doesn’t guarantee you’re on the right side of judgment.

Some people are scandalised by sinners in the Church. But Our Lord was never surprised. He built the Church knowing that it would always be a field of wheat and weeds (cf. Matthew 13:24–30), a net full of mixed fish, until the end of the age.

So we should never be discouraged by imperfection in the Church. We should, instead, be vigilant — beginning with ourselves.

Jesus says that at the end of the age, the angels will come and separate the good from the wicked.

Here’s the important lesson: we’re not the sorters — God is.

Too often we want to pre-empt judgment. We categorise, exclude, or write people off. But the Lord sees hearts. He alone judges with justice and mercy. Until then, we’re all still in the net.

This doesn’t mean we ignore sin or abandon the call to conversion — far from it. But it does mean that we avoid self-righteousness. As St. Philip Neri said, “There go I, but for the grace of God.”

At the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus adds a small image: “Every scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

This is a beautiful image of the Catholic soul—someone rooted in the treasures of the faith, both ancient and fresh.

It reminds us that we don’t abandon tradition for novelty, nor do we cling to the past out of fear. The true disciple is formed in the wisdom of the Church and open to the action of the Holy Spirit in the present.

In practical terms: love your Rosary and read the Catechism. Learn the ancient prayers and seek ways to evangelise today’s culture. Be a scribe trained for the Kingdom — equipped with the old and the new.

So what’s the takeaway?

The Church casts her net wide. Don’t be scandalised by sinners — just don’t be content to remain one.

Don’t try to be the judge. That job’s taken.

Be the kind of fish God wants to keep: open to grace, daily converted, and growing in holiness.

And be a good scribe — someone who knows the beauty of tradition and shares it with joy.

Stay in the net. Let Christ do His work. And remember — He came not to discard us, but to catch us in mercy.