The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine how our needs and desires align with our call to be fishers of people for Christ.
Fishers of people
The reading from the First Book of Samuel introduces Elkanah and his family at Shiloh.
* [1:7] In biblical narrative, the social status gained by producing children, especially males, often set woman against woman; cf. e.g., Gn 16, 21, 30. Peninnah’s provocations may be the arrogant boasting mentioned in 2:3.1
Psalm 116 is thanksgiving for recovery from illness.
* [Psalm 116] A thanksgiving in which the psalmist responds to divine rescue from mortal danger (Ps 116:3–4) and from near despair (Ps 116:10–11) with vows and Temple sacrifices (Ps 116:13–14, 17–19). The Greek and Latin versions divide the Psalm into two parts: Ps 116:1–9 and Ps 116:10–19, corresponding to its two major divisions.2
The Gospel of Mark describes the beginning of the Galilean Ministry when Jesus calls the First Disciples.
* [1:16–20] These verses narrate the call of the first Disciples. See notes on Mt 4:18–22 and Mt 4:20.3
Joan Blandin Howard asks why did Jesus call these particular men? Why fishermen? Maybe because fishermen were used to venturing into the unknown. Used to being caught off-guard and vulnerable. Maybe that was the reason – Jesus knew that in their vulnerability was their strength. Jesus knew they were the right ones. They were ready.
Am I aware of Jesus calling me? Occasionally, repeatedly maybe even aggressively, urgently? Do I take it seriously? Am I ready? What does Jesus see in me that I don’t see in myself? A litany - I’m sinful, unworthy, fearful, vulnerable and…. At times unable to love and be loved. Sure, I can also be kind, compassionate and loving. All of this, yet also longing for, searching for and desiring I know not what. “Exactly! “You are all of that and more - precisely why I love you. Why I call you. You will hear me as the tide gargles through the shore’s pebbles, in the dark, the dawn, in your joys and sorrows.” I listen. I hear. “…, I love you, do not be afraid, follow me.” Where have you heard Jesus calling you? Listen! Maybe it is less about me and more about Jesus, more about God – the Aggressive Lover.4
Don Schwager quotes “Common people on an uncommon mission,” by Eusebius of Caesarea (260/263-340 AD).
"Reflect on the nature and grandeur of the one Almighty God who could associate himself with the poor of the lowly fisherman's class. To use them to carry out God's mission baffles all rationality. For having conceived the intention, which no one ever before had done, of spreading his own commands and teachings to all nations, and of revealing himself as the teacher of the religion of the one Almighty God to all humanity, he thought good to use the most unsophisticated and common people as ministers of his own design. Maybe God just wanted to work in the most unlikely way. For how could inarticulate folk be made able to teach, even if they were appointed teachers to only one person, much less to a multitude? How should those who were themselves without education instruct the nations?... When he had thus called them as his followers, he breathed into them his divine power, and filled them with strength and courage. As God himself he spoke God's true word to them in his own way, enabling them to do great wonders, and made them pursuers of rational and thinking souls, by empowering them to come after him, saying: 'Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for people' (Mark 1:17, Matthew 4:19). With this empowerment God sent them forth to be workers and teachers of holiness to all the nations, declaring them heralds of his own teaching." (excerpt from PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 3.7)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 Samuel 1:1-8 comments that disappointment can cloud our emotions and our view of God. But we can clear that fog. Like Hannah, start with prayer—it’s okay to remind the Lord (repeatedly even) of what we desire. He is not angered when we refuse his comfort. He wants to meet us in our pain and provide for us. He longs to nourish us and heal the areas of our lives that feel wounded or wasted. Eventually, God did fulfill Hannah’s deepest longing for a son, Samuel. But in the meantime, he poured into her his tender, fatherly love.
So take the nourishment God offers today. He might nourish you with an inspiring word in Scripture. Or perhaps he will feed your soul through the comfort of a friendship and the laughter and encouragement that flow between the two of you. He certainly can feed you through his presence in the Eucharist and in a restful, peaceful prayer time. In those moments, you may discover that your heavenly Father can fulfill you as nothing else can. “Father, thank you for your tender love. I trust you to provide for me.”6
Friar Jude Winkler notes how one of the two wives of Elkanah, Hannah, was suffering greatly. Jesus is proclaiming the Kingdom of God that is not a time or a place but an acceptance of the Love of God. Friar Jude reminds us that we are called in a special way to join Jesus and leave behind less important concerns.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, points out how we misunderstand Jesus and his teachings when we think of him apart from the Trinity.
Many of the Fathers of the church believed in an ontological, metaphysical, objective union between humanity and God, which alone would allow Jesus to take us “back with him” into the life of the Trinity (John 17:23–24, 14:3, 12:26). This was how real “participation” was for many in the early church. It changed people and offered them their deepest identity and form (“trans-formation”). We had thought our form was merely human, but Jesus came to show us that our actual form is human-divine, just as he is. He was not much interested in proclaiming himself the exclusive son of God. Instead, he went out of his way to communicate an inclusive sonship and daughterhood to the crowds. Paul uses words like “adopted” (Galatians 4:5) and “co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) to make the same point.7
The undivided unity of the Trinity calls us to a relationship of transformation to full life.
References
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