Christ our God, in that He founded the heaven, the earth, the sea, and in them created great, many, and varied creatures, displayed wondrous proofs of His power; but in that He assumed our human nature, acts as a man, enters into time, passes through the ages, teaches by His word, heals by His power, speaks in similitudes, sets forth examples, and lays open in Himself the weight of our own affections, He reveals that there dwells in Him an unspeakable love toward humankind. Hence it is that He commends heavenly things by earthly examples, grants us to be wise about things to come by means of things present, and represents invisible things by visible arguments. This the similitudes prove which the Gospel reading today proclaims to our hearing: 「The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls;」
and having found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it (Matt. XIII). Let no one who hears this word 「merchant」 take offense: here He speaks of the merchant who dispenses mercy, not of one who ever exacts the interest of usury; of one who furnishes the ornaments of the virtues, not the incitements of the vices; who bears the weight of a serious character, not the weight of stones; who carries the necklaces of honor, not of luxury, displaying not the pomp of pleasure but the insignia of discipline. This merchant, then, sets forth these pearls of heart and body, not for human trade but for a divine enterprise; not for present gain, but that he may purchase what is to come; not for earthly glory, but for the heavenly:
so that he may procure the kingdom of heaven at the price of the virtues, and by innumerable good things redeem the single pearl of everlasting life. And the Lord added another similitude, saying: 「Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net cast into the sea, and gathering of every kind of fish: which, when it was filled, they drew out, and sitting down by the shore, chose the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.」 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net cast into the sea. This similitude reveals why Christ chose fishermen into the apostolate, and made the catchers of fish to be fishers of men, that a figure of the divine judgment might be shown by the fisherman's art. The catch gathers fish confused together, but the sorting into vessels sets apart the chosen:
so the Christian calling gathers together the just and the unjust, the bad and the good; but the divine election distinguishes the good from the bad. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net cast into the sea. Into the sea of this present age—swelling with pomp, lifted high at its crest, billowing with schisms, tossing with ignorance, clamorous with lawsuits, roaring with anger, savage with treachery, shipwrecked by sins, and sunk in impiety—Christ sent His fishermen, that is, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, men proven in the art, when He said: 「Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men」 (Matt.
iv). He therefore sent forth His fishermen, bearing nets knotted together with the precepts of the Law and the Gospel, girt about with admonitions, spread wide with the gifts and grace of the virtues, gathering an endless catch into the Gospel's bosom. This is the very time, brethren, in which this is being done: throughout nations and peoples the nets of Christ are now being drawn, and they bring in from the whole world catches confused together, without distinction of persons. But because the end of the age is near, and the fish—that is, men—already approach the nets of our catch at the shore of judgment, who once wandered free and at leisure in the deep, roaming course of the world, now disturbed by the dryness of the shore, that is, by the nearness of the end, dash themselves entirely into confusion at the whole ordering of things:
seeing the impious nations enlarged by successive triumphs, Christian peoples throughout the whole world straitened as captives, the impious rejoicing in prosperous successes, the pious trampled by an unbroken succession of evils, masters made subject to servitude, servants lording it over their masters, sons rebellious against their parents, the old held in contempt by the young, and every state of nature, every order of life fallen into ruin. But though these things be so, they do not trouble the strong; rather they trouble the weak, and the strong they cannot trouble, because these draw strength from the similitude, and fortitude from the figure. The fish, cast out of the deep, are indeed tumbled about a little upon the shore in their own confusion, but the swift sorting, while it casts away the bad, chooses the good; it makes them good, this brief confusion, soon to pass away, does not trouble them.
This heavenly sorting, which consigns the bad to punishments and snatches the good up to honor, leads the impious down to Tartarus and sends the pious over to the kingdom, will console the fathers, the aged, the just, the elect, and all, for their brief dishonor, with everlasting glory. And this the comparison itself proves, when it is said: 「In the consummation of the age the angels of God shall go forth, and shall separate the bad from the midst of the just.」 In the consummation of the age: he who believes in the consummation of the age, why does he complain of the diminution of the world? He who trusts that things enduring will come to him, why does he seek to possess things transitory? Brethren, the world takes its beginning from its end; the creation is renewed by its end, it does not fail; the age fails not for its Creator, but for its crime; nor for the just, but for sinners are the elements brought to an end.
In the consummation of the age the angels shall go forth to separate the just. Let no one doubt that the holy angels will obey the saints, to whom Christ Himself promises His own service. It is the voice of Christ: 「I will gird myself, and will minister unto you.」 The angels of God shall go forth and shall separate the bad from the midst of the just (Luke XVII). Bear with it, O just; bear with it—nay, grant a respite, O just—this brief commingling shall be weighed against a long separation. They shall separate the bad from the midst of the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. Behold, they who cast out their neighbors, who expel their guests, what a dwelling they choose for themselves! Behold, they who here prepare delights for themselves through the hunger and torments of the poor, prepare for themselves, from another's affliction, a fire yonder as great as the little pleasure with which they kindle it. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
How wretchedly he shall gnash there, who here laughs wickedly; and he who now rejoices in the evils of the poor shall then mourn over the good things of the poor, because he was able to rejoice with the poor, but would not. But you, O faithful, rejoice in the Lord always.