I have never enjoyed fishing. Never liked touching worms, much less putting them on a hook. The fish were slimy and would ‘fin’ you if you were not careful when you had caught them. And it seemed unfair – that you would catch them with their hunger – they did not stand much a chance once you had them snagged. (Plus all I knew was catch and release, so it did not make much sense to do all that work for nothing.) So, aside from the cute verbal turn of the phrase, fishermen to fishers of men, that image of being fishers of men never did much for me. Yet, it is precisely that call that Jesus uses to catch his first disciples. So, there must be something there for us non-fishing-loving-people. What is at the heart of that image – fishers of men? Certainly it is not the image of dragging things against their will from the sea to the shore. (use finger as a ‘hook’ in my mouth to drag me sideways) That does not do much for me.
Here is where some information from the cultural world of Jesus supplies some needed information. For the Jewish people, the sea, even as it was a source of their livelihood and food, was primarily a place of chaos, filled with monsters and demons. We hear the images in the Psalms: ‘Leviathan’, the ‘monsters of the deep’, the ‘torrents overwhelming us’. The greatest punishment they could imagine was to be cast into the sea with a millstone around their neck. The sea was a dangerous place to venture, fraught with peril. Thus, when Jesus walks on the water, he ‘tames the forces of evil and chaos; he shows his mastery over those demons and forces. So, when he invites his apostles to be fishers of men – he invites them to be the ones who pull people from a place of danger, to rescue them from places of chaos; to bring them to a shore of safety.
That way of looking at being “fishers of men” has captured my prayer this week – to be a person who saves people from the chaos of life, to rescue folks, to bring them to a place where they might come to know safety, to help them escape the nets of a sometimes crazy world, – and ultimately to meet the same Jesus that I have met – Ahh! that kind of fishing I can get hooked on. (pun intended)
So, I have looked for opportunities this week to make that happen. Though none of the moments would make it to the front page of the news, there are those moments when you are able to invite people to come and stand on safer ground.
• While at dinner with a friend, they voiced concern about a destructive relationship one of their friends was involved in. So we spent some time brainstorming about how to voice those concerns in a loving but challenging way.
• At Dave and Ann’s house, who continues his battle with ALS last Sunday night, it is obvious that the disease is winning. Though we all continue to pray for a miracle which has yet to be granted, what I could affirm was the wonderful group of friends they have who gather each Sunday night to pray the rosary with them. Their faithful witness is a wonderful way that they know God is still with them in the battle.
• Though they have postponed the planned execution of a death row inmate slated for this Wed., Missouri put 10 people to death last year. And is probably on that same pace for this year. It is a flawed system of justice. So I spent time this week writing my governor and elected officials inviting them to stop the practice.
• I had a two minute conversation with a student who now has to change majors – not because I could change the outcome at the University level, but because they needed to know they were still loved and worthwhile, no matter where their education brought them to…
Fishing for people: finding a way to rescue people from the dangers – great and small – that their lives are in, and gently call them to life. It is what Jesus invited his disciples to do. It is what he invites us to do.
Whether you like fishing or not, I believe we all know people who are in peril on the seas of their lives. How is God inviting you to be a fisher of His people this week?