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Fishers of Men


Lower Your Nets

A Reflection on Luke 5: 1-11
Presented to the Catholic Residents
Of The Michigan Masonic Home

February 8, 2007

by Philip D. Ropp

        In previous weeks, I have stood here and presented to you the reflections that I had prepared and given at the prison: The so-called “correctional facility” that so often seems to need more correcting than it gives.  The reason for this “double dipping” from the pool of reflections is not so much that it allows me to get extra mileage out of the work that I do for them, but, more, that the words of inspiration that they need to hear seem to apply equally to you as well.

        In a deeper vein than this runs the truth that you have, in the course of our ministry here, become an integral and vital part of our ministry there.  Not only have I been witness to the power of your prayer as it uplifts the downtrodden and gently points their faces towards the light, but the wisdom I have gained from you and the example of the gentle spirit that fills this place, goes with me when I leave here and stays with me when I enter there.  So, I can truthfully say that, “Lo, you are with me always, even unto the ends of the earth.”  And while I don’t know that the prison is the “ends of the earth,” it’s about as close to it as I care to get. 
       
        When you hear these words that are preached to prisoners, know that it is you that have inspired them, and if they resonate with you as well as them, then I know that we are in harmony; not only with each other, but the Lord; and something good is happening through and for all of us.  And so when we speak of our ministry here, we are not merely speaking of what we bring to you, but also of what you give in return to us and to others beyond.  Our ministry is just that. It is yours and ours together.

         It is amazing to me the way the Liturgy of the Word speaks to us; how our lives flow in parallel to the message of the Gospel, and how God can somehow take the ebb and flow of life and bring it into balance with the Scriptures through the calendar of the Church. When all is said and done, these omnipresent and omniscient miracles of God’s attention to detail are, perhaps, the most astounding of them all.   

          And so, when we are young, we are like the youthful Isaiah, and our sins are purged by the burning ember of our entry into the sacraments of Church, and we call out in our youthful exuberance, “Here I am, send me.” For most of us it seems so natural and anticlimactic to marry and establish households that we lose sight of the fact that it is God that has sent us to do so.  Then we enter our midlife and, like the Corinthians, we are rocked and rolled by the stress and strife and burden of family and home and job and business until one day we are able to stand with Paul and say, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them…”  But the haunting question also remains and we hear it from far too many, “What have I really accomplished for the Lord?”   

          The message for the Church at the Masonic Home this morning is this; God is not done with you.  Though you have fished through the night and it seems to all the world that the time for your fishing has passed, Jesus is here this morning to tell you one more time, “Lower your nets.”  Lower the nets of your prayers at this point in your life, with the spiritual knowledge and the wisdom and the power of the great faith that you possess, and we will fill our boats to overflowing with your catch.  Already we are seeing the results in the prison, where the hardest of the hearts are touched by the mere knowledge that someone cares.  And they know you care because they know that you understand what it means to be institutionalized by society and forgotten. 

          Through your prayers, they know God has not forgotten them and he has not forgotten you, either.  To the contrary; he has brought a fine young priest to our community; a man that knows the power of prayer; a man that knows the power of your prayers, and knows that prayer is the only hope for our community, our world and our church in this time of growing tribulation. He has sent us to you to help build a sense of community within the confines of these walls that he might bring you home to the Church you love, so that you might know that this same Church loves you and desperately needs the spiritual gifts that you have acquired over a lifetime:  Gifts that, sadly, too many in the younger generations are lacking.   

        As we come together at the table of the Lord and join our hearts together in the prayer of the Eucharist, let us do so in the knowledge that we are Church; the family of God and disciples of Jesus Christ.  At his bidding, let us once more put out into the deep waters of our faith and lower our nets for a catch.



Luke

Chapter 5
1
1 While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
2
He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
3
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
4
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."
5
Simon said in reply, "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets."
6
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.
7
They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking.
8
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
9
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him,
10
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men."
11
When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything 2 and followed him.