JULY 30, 2026 MSGR. ROBERT NUSCA
In today’s Gospel, once again we find Our Lord teaching in parables. He speaks of the fishing net that is cast into the sea, and of the angels separating the good fish from the bad at the end of the age. And then turning to His disciples, He instructs them concerning the wisdom needed to preach the Gospel in a powerful way. And several things emerge for our reflection
Throughout the parables, Jesus uses simple language and imagery drawn from the everyday life of His original audience. He speaks of fishing nets, of weeds and wheat, of planting seeds and gathering harvests. And in these Parables or “teaching stories,” Jesus offers instruction concerning the mystery of the Kingdom of God, while emphasizing the importance of preparing faithfully to be found worthy to enter into the joys of everlasting life.
If we study the parables, we see that they speak to us of a loving and merciful God; of great rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. They teach us the importance of prayer, and invite us to show loving kindness toward others, including our enemies. At the same time, they warn against hypocrisy, and speak to us of the reality of final judgment as in today’s Gospel.
What is important to appreciate is that beneath the simple language of the parables Jesus offers a profound and compelling vision of God’s transforming power at the very heart of our everyday life and experience. In the world of the parables God is very near to us.
And it is this vision of God’s presence at work in the processes of everyday life through the power of the Holy Spirit, that in many ways gives the parables their universal appeal. But in our postmodern, post-truth and what some refer to as our “post human” world today, when global elites speak of Jesus Christ as “fake news,” so often the message of the Kingdom seems inaudible over the relentless roar of the world.
So often, it may seem that the Church is losing ground: that the soil is barren and that the field is no longer capable of producing the yield that it once did; that “the pearl of great price” has lost its value; or that the “treasure hidden in the field” is forever lost. And so, we are led to ask: what is the Lord calling us to do in this era of the New Evangelization, so that the Gospel might continue to grow, indeed to yield a superabundant harvest?
The parables extend to us an invitation to live the Gospel with a joyful, even bold confidence in God’s own plans for us individually and collectively. Far from “fake news,” Jesus teaches us that from seemingly inauspicious beginnings, God Himself will bring forth His everlasting Kingdom. As I have said on other occasions, the parables express not only that the Kingdom of God is already in the process of arriving, but that nothing can stop its arrival.
So it is that the Lord challenges us today to respond generously to the call to cultivate those spiritual conditions of prayer within ourselves which are most conducive to the flowering of the Kingdom.
The Lord is calling us to strive to live a life of holiness in imitation of the lives of the Saints.
At the same time, today’s Gospel contains an important message about final judgment as we see in the Parable of the fishing net. St. Gregory the Great compares the net to the Church, because it draws people upward from the turbulent waters of the present age to the everlasting life of Heaven. St. Hilary of Poitiers adds that this net: “lifts us out of this passing world and into the light of the true sun.” At the same time, again, Our Lord emphasizes the reality of final judgment and the great importance of seeking forgiveness for our sins as He describes what will happen “at the end of the age.”
And on our journey of faith, we are called to strive to balance our efforts to grow in the interior life, with exterior works of kindness and charity. Particularly in our own time we are called to show God’s own love and mercy toward the growing numbers of people experiencing “food insecurity,” for those who are lonely, for the lost and abandoned on our streets, and for so many who are experiencing a sense of sadness and despair in our time.
Indeed, so many people particularly among our young, express great concern and anxiety about the future. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, what will be the long-term impact upon the job market and job security? Many express concerns over whether they will ever be able to afford a home; about the world economy, as well as the environment. And so, the parables call us as a people of faith to be living signs of hope to others in these challenging times, indeed to be a bright light shining in the darkness of the times in which we live, by both our encouraging words and our charitable actions.
And as Jesus concludes today’s Gospel, He turns to His disciples, calling forth in them wisdom, like a Scribe trained for the Kingdom of Heaven and master of the household. Indeed now, as much as ever, there is a great need for effective teachers and preachers who are able both: to draw out from our rich faith tradition the eternal, spiritual treasures of our faith, and to do so in a way that is inspiring; and is able to “win others to the Gospel” in the times in which we live.
And so, the need to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. For as Our Lord Himself says: Mt 9:37-38: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” At the same time there are growing signs of hope, as studies show that increased numbers of our young people today are turning to the faith as they seek a greater sense of spirituality within a community of likeminded people in an increasingly unstable world.
Finally, today the Church remembers St. Peter Chrysologus – from the Greek term “golden-worded” – the 5th century Archbishop of Ravenna, Italy who was renowned for his short but very rich and inspiring homilies. In his homily on the Incarnation, taken from today’s Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours, he says that: ‘God has made you in his own image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth…Christ is born, that by His birth He might restore our nature…And the creature that God had formed of earth He now makes heavenly; and what He had endowed with a human soul He now vivifies to become a heavenly spirit. In this way He fully raised humanity up to God and left us in neither sin, nor death, nor travail, nor pain, nor anything earthly with the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, as we continue to celebrate this Mass, let us pray that through the intercession of St. Peter Chrysologus, we may respond fully to God’s call to us to live the Gospel in all of its depths. Let us pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and for preachers of the Gospel blessed with the graces to bring forth from the storehouse of our tradition riches both old and new.
Let us pray for the grace to help people retain above all the knowledge that we are spiritual beings created in the image and likeness of God – not as some would say “hackable animals” to be controlled by nano-technology. For, as the lives of the Saints show us, we have been created for great and glorious things both in this world and in the next.
