Word to the Wise
Thursday, July 30, 2015 - Thursday in the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 40:16-21, 34-38 and Matt 13:47-53]The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collectsfish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age... [Matthew]
Around this time of summer, some years ago, I was preaching a retreat for the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, who run Catholic high schools. They had the custom of inviting staff members from their schools, male and female, to attend their retreats. The retreat was in a format known to us Dominicans as the "Parable" model (because it followed a daily structure of preaching, prayer and meditation on the scriptures of the day that was meant to be a "parable" of religious life.) The brothers requested this model. All the preaching of the day was on the scriptures given for that day. In the evenings there is an optional sharing session where participants can share their own reflection on the day's scriptures. The gospel of the day was the one that we have today about the Kingdom of heaven as a dragnet with the good and bad fish.
There was a lady on the retreat who spoke of her uncle who was a fisherman on the Gulf Coast. Some of his "competitors" were Vietnamese fishermen who had come to this country and were living on the Gulf Coast. Her uncle noted that he threw back fish that were not acceptable in his catch, but the Vietnamese fishermen kept every fish they caught. She concluded her reflection by saying, "You know, I find myself hoping God is Vietnamese!" I have never forgotten her words.
Most of us, I think, would share her sentiment. We may have certain villains that we want to see rejected by God, but we hope that God will "keep" most of us. A well-known "Fisherman's Prayer," that my dad, an ardent fisherman, kept by his bed, ended with the lines that "I may be found good enough to keep." Jesus offers us the way to be exactly that! AMEN
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