JUST FISHIN'

This last Thursday at our Bible study class, we studied Noah and the great flood. All that water sloshing and whirling somehow made me think about fishing, which brought me here. I don't know why, since I don't fish. It just happened. Go figure! Anyway, those simple fishermen who were chosen to be Apostles, and thus, becoming fishers of men, brought me to this thought. We are the fish. Some of us are easy catches, while others take much time to reel in. Some of us almost make it into the boat just to bite off the line which was bringing us in, thus, we eluded the catch. I was one of these. I said NO once to the Catholic Church, because I thought there was too much to learn. HA!HA! I think Our Blessed Mother just kept reeling the rod in, wearing me down, and then successfully getting me into the boat, the ark of Salvation, the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Now, I don't seem to have enough time to learn. I hope there's still time for me, though. Go figure. I guess I was just stubborn enough that she thought I might be of some use in her Son's Church. My last name is Miles, which, in Latin, means 'soldier'. I am trying to live up to my name, being part of the Church Militant. The Church isn't for wimps, you know.

Anyway, enough about me; let's move on to our lesson of the fishers. Personally, I like what St. Augustine says about this topic: '...the fishers of men have cast forth their nets; they have taken the multitude of Christians which we see in wonderment; they have filled the two ships with them, the two peoples, Jew and Gentile. But what is this we are told? the multitude weighs down the ships, even to the risk of sinking them; it is what we witness now: the pressing and mingled crowd of the baptized is a burden to the Church. Many Christians there are who live badly; they are a trouble to, and keep back, the good. Worse than these, there are those who tear the nets by their schisms or their heresies; they are impatient of the yoke of unity, and will not come to the banquet of Christ; they are pleased with themselves. Under pretext that they cannot live with the bad, they break the net which kept them in the Apostolic track, and they die far off the shore. In how many countries have they not thus broken the great net of salvation?...and since their times, how many others have excelled in the work of rupture! Let us not imitate their folly. If grace have made us holy, let us be patient with the bad while living in this world's waters. Let the sight of them drive us neither to live as they do, not to leave the Church. The shore is not far off, where those on the right, or the good, will alone be permitted to land, and from which the wicked will be repulsed, and cast into the abyss.'

How many do we know who fall into these categories; not caring about the Eternal Truth, but rather quite contented to do what please themselves. They decide what's right; they decide the meaning of Scripture; they decide who goes to heaven, which is most everybody since hell isn't around anymore. The joke will be on you if you believe this. Much prayer is needed, my friends, even for those who are supposed to be herding us into the right Boat. The net, which is cast by the Church, is the net of salvation. If we are in the net which was cast by the Apostles, and particularly Peter, we shall be well off. But, just as in the Gospel, it has broken, allowing many fish (people and their souls), to fall through the gaping hole, and because it wasn't mended, many of the fish have been lost. The Church, lead by 'Peter', must repair the net and bring us back into it. No more of this limp-wristed faith which we get today.

It's time to put on our waders and the helmet of salvation and get busy!!!!! It appears that we have to help mend the net.


I found this little prayer on the Canadian Catholic Perspective, and I hope they don't mind if I copy the following:

Fisherman’s Prayer:

I pray that I may live to fish
Until my dying day,
And when it comes to my last cast,
Then I most humbly pray;
When in the Lord’s great landing net
And peacefully asleep,
That in His mercy I be judged
Big enough to keep.


Let us pray that we may, one day, be the big catch and worthy of keeping.