Fishing with joy

The experience of going to the lake, river or seaside to fish with simple equipment is peaceful and joyful for many people. Small boats on the big ocean at dawn are in tension between the peace of working in nature and the awesome power which is demonstrated when that sea is disturbed by storms. The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary present peace, joy and storms. The Gospel from Matthew, which Friar Jude Winkler reminds us is written as a very Jewish Gospel to Christians with a Jewish heritage, draws attention to the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, pagan areas where the Prophet Isaiah proclaims that people in darkness will see a great light. This apologia of Matthew is in harmony with a purpose of his writing to tell of Jesus as the Messiah Who fulfills Hebrew prophesy as He brings about the transformation to the Kingdom of Heaven. The first disciples called to follow Jesus are fishing. Simon and Andrew, James and John leave their nets but not the life talent which has been given them by God. They are being transformed through their relationship with Jesus to fishers of men. Several commentators on the work in Christianity today note that we may have been distracted by desires or assumptions that our vocation will involve a road to Damascus event which will radically change us from the dark side to the side of those in light.  Maybe, as Keith Krell, writes we tend to focus on the "purely indifferent things" listed by CS Lewis rather than our unity as Christians in relationship with Jesus. The joy we have now is the root of the joy we are called to bring to others through our relationship with Jesus. PopeFrancis apostolic exhortation on the Joy of the Gospel is recalled by DennisHamm, S.J. of Creighton University with the caution that we sometimes see divisions, within our own faith communities, where some of us consider ourselves more “orthodox” or better informed than others because of our training, education, or sources of information. The Letter to the Corinthians today tells us that this trouble was one which Paul needed to address in the Church he established in that community. David Lose of the Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN discusses our real vocation and the nature of being joyful witnesses in the same sense as Pope Francis and Friar Jude. Our relationship with joy in using our God given talents is transformed though our relationship with Jesus to be the basis of the loving actions and service we are for others. We continue to fish but we know that our joy in our work is baptized to bring Love to others.