After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him. Mark 1: 14-20 (NAB)
According to Mark, the very first thing Jesus says in his public ministry is “Repent. Turn back. Do a complete about-face. Change your way of life. Believe in the good news.” Immediately he chooses his first disciples, and offers them a mission. “Come after me,” he says, “and I will make you fishers of people, rather than fish.” Again, you see, repentance and mission.
As is always the case, Jesus’s invitation in the gospel this morning is not just to that handful of disciples. Rather, Jesus invites each one of us to have a radical change of heart; to do an about-face; to pledge our entire lives to believing in the good news, which is nothing less than Jesus himself. Each of us is also invited to become a fisher, and to fish for human souls.
Any person who fishes seriously can tell you that if you want to catch a fish, you have to go where the fish are, and you have to offer them something that looks good to them. So also when we fish for other people: we have to go where they are, and we have to offer them something that looks good to them; that is to say, the good news of salvation. But this means that there will be times when we have to leave our comfort zone if we are to be effective fishers.
Another lesson we might learn from those who fish for a living is to work without judging the worthiness of others. Jonah didn’t think the Ninevites were worthy of being spared by God. We, too, especially these days, tend to classify people into “us” and “them” categories. But there is no sign at the end of a fishing line that says, “Good fish only.” Nor can we as disciples discriminate or judge as we go out to the world to spread the good news. God wants ALL people to be saved, not just the ones we think deserve it. For all we know, WE may be the ones who don’t deserve it.
One last thought. If the people in Jerusalem turned a deaf ear to the preaching of Isaiah and Jeremiah, if Jesus’s fellow citizens turned a deaf ear to his good news, it goes without saying that there will be plenty of people who turn a deaf ear to our attempts to spread that same good news. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to try. We may be wildly successful, as Jonah was, or we may seem to fail miserably as did other prophets. It is still our task to preach the good news, both in words and in the way we live. God will take care of the rest.
Fr. David Brown, OSB
Belmont Abbey, North Carolina
January 22, 2012
