“Work is for people who don’t know how to fish.” Anonymous.
Last Sunday we heard Matthew’s Gospel about the call of Jesus’ first disciples. It’s a brief account, little descriptive detail. Jesus comes along, sees Peter and Andrew fishing with their nets and John and James mending their nets. He says, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” They leave their work to follow him. Simple as that!
By the time this episode is recounted in Luke’s Gospel it takes on a lot of detail – becomes a small drama. Jesus happens to be preaching to a crowd by the shore when he sees two boats in which the fishermen are washing their nets. He gets into Peter’s boat and continues preaching to the people then tells Peter to launch out into the deep and lower his nets for a catch.
Peter is weary from fishing all night and catching nothing – but he sails forth, lowers his nets and comes up with more fish than he can handle. This frightens him and his partners; this Jesus seems more than just another rabbi; there’s an aura about him. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
We shouldn’t be dismayed at the differences in the two stories. As these remembrances were narrated at the baptism of new Christians or in liturgical celebrations in the early Church the narrators took liberties in the telling – that could intensify the impact of the story upon the congregations, amplify the application of the episode to new audiences. The Gospels were more the product of early Christian preaching than a desktop manner of reporting the news.
And notice how this “call” story was located last Sunday in our Gospel readings for the year. Jesus invites not just the early disciples but we ourselves to go fishing – indeed (in Luke’s terms) to lower our nets, our minds, our imagination into deep water, to think deep, ponder, get serious about life. Or like Peter, in another fishing episode in John’s Gospel, to take the plunge, dive into our creed, go for broke.
For from this Sunday on to the beginning of Lent we shall be reading Matthew’s lengthy Sermon on the Mount – deep water indeed! Along with the disciples we will be asked to lower our nets to catch on to the radical, profound ethic and understanding of true God that runs so powerfully, poetically through Jesus’ discourse.
And hopefully we shall come up by the time of Lent with a catch, an understanding of our New Testament so overpowering as to change everything about us? That depends, of course, to a great degree on how seriously you listen to and ponder such sayings as Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy and Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
If only to recall what Herbert Hoover (yes Herbert Hoover) once wisely said: “Fishing is the chance to wash one’s soul with pure air. It brings meekness and inspiration, reduces our egoism, soothes our troubles and shames our wickedness. It is discipline in the equality of men — for all men are equal before fish.”