Anyway, enough about me; let's move on to our lesson of the fishers. 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. Much prayer is needed, my friends, even for those who are supposed to be herding us into the right Boat.
Why, you may ask, did the Apostles have such a hard time during the night fishing and catching nothing, but how things changed when Jesus entered the picture. Could it be because at first they trusted in themselves, and did not throw out their nets in the name of the Lord, relying on His blessing and assistance? "This example," says St. Ambrose, "proves how vain and fruitless is presumptuous confidence, and how powerful, on the contrary, is humility, since those who had previously labored without success, filled their nets at the word of the Redeemer." Let us learn from this our inability, that we begin our work only with God, that is, with confidence in His help, and with the intention of working only for love of Him, and for His honor. If we do this, the blessing of the Lord will not be wanting.
On a final note, something to think about. 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:
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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.
Incline my heart, O God, to Thy holy commandments. Guard me, that I work not in the night of sin, and thus gain nothing by my works. Assist all your pastors that by Thy divine will, they may win souls for Thy kingdom, and bring them to Thee.
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