Word to the Wise
Thursday, July 28, 2016 - Thursday in the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jer 18:1-6 and Matt 13:47-53]"The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish 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." [Matthew]
I cannot remember if I have ever told this story in these reflections, but it is one of my favorites. Please forgive me if I have told it before. Some years ago I preached a retreat for the Brothers of the Sacred Heart who operate high schools in New Orleans, Bay St. Louis, MS, and Mobile, AL. When they hold their provincial retreat, they invite staff members from their high schools to join them. I was invited to preach that retreat at a retreat house in southern Mississippi. The style of the retreat was a model developed by Dominicans for Dominicans, but which spread to a wider audience. All the preaching at the retreat was to be based on the scriptures of the day. Part of the schedule included an optional "sharing" time at the end of the day in which retreatants could share what the scriptures of the day had made on them. (The lay participants were better attenders!) One woman shared the story of her uncle who was a commercial fisherman out of Biloxi, MS. Some of his "competitors" were Vietnamese immigrant fishermen. Once he commented to his niece that, contrary to his practice, the Vietnamese fishermen never threw anything back from their catch. She concluded her story saying, "You know, I find myself hoping God is Vietnamese!" I have never forgotten her story.
My father kept a prayer on the wall of his room by his bed entitled, "A Fisherman's Prayer," in which the last line prays "that I be big enough to keep." Jesus does say that there will be a sorting out, but no one is forced to accept his message. If we want to be "kept," we have to accept his message and his kingdom. Nevertheless, we are not the fisherman and the judgment is the Lord's. I do, however, share that lady's hope! AMEN
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