Time to Fish
With at least four of the apostles being fishermen, it is no surprise that the gospels often have Jesus using fish or fishing when teaching the apostles about their vocation. Jesus tells Peter that from now on he will be fishing for people, he tells them in today’s gospel to throw their nets to the other side for a catch. Fish are broiling on the fire when they come ashore. Jesus feeds the crowds with loaves and fish.
Despite Peter’s proclamation that “it is the Lord”, despite their experiences of the Lord after the resurrection they are still grappling with their faith and their understanding of Jesus’ death on the cross and the effects of his resurrection. We see in the gospel narratives, as well as in the Acts of the Apostles that they had scattered after the crucifixion. Even when they were together, they were huddled in fear under lock and key. Despite the appearances of Jesus after the resurrection, they still were floundering and were not focused on their mission as disciples.
In many ways, we can be like those disciples in the boat that day. We may have had an experience that results in doubt and fear, in uncertainty about our faith and our relationship with the Lord. There may even be moments of crisis – whether a crisis of faith, life, vocation or anything else. In those moments, Jesus invites us to throw our “nets to the right side”. I’m sure the disciples in the boat had their (at least inner) moments of scoffing at the Lord standing on the shore. After fishing all night and catching nothing why should they bother trying again. After all, they were professionals, they should know how fishing worked!
Trying to make sense of the turmoil in the world around us today is akin to the disciples trying to make sense of their recent experiences. Faced with turmoil, doubt, fear we instinctively withdraw to something that is familiar, that seems to provide some sense of safety. In those moments, we are challenged to open our ears and hearts and hear the Lord’s invitation to “throw the net”, that it is time to fish. We are reminded in the gospel today to trust in the lord’s promise to be with us always, to care for us and provide us with the gifts we need to live our faith as fully as possible and to go on to share the good news of God’s love for all. Like the disciples who continued to grow in their understanding of who they were and their vocation as the Lord’s disciples and then went on to live that vocation, we are also each on a journey to understand more fully our own vocation and live to embrace and live it more fully each day. Like the disciples we need to trust that if the Lord asks us to live our vocation as disciples in a particular way he will give us the grace to respond. Who know what our catch of fish might look like!
By Richard Beaudette, OMI
