Off the coast of Maine lies an island so small that the surrounding ocean can be seen from any point on the island. A visitor to the Sunday school class asked the children, "How many of you," he asked, "have ever seen the Atlantic Ocean?" To his surprise, not a single hand went up.
There is such a thing as being so much a part of one's environment that we're simply not aware of it. Father John Colbein said we don't know for sure who discovered water, but we're pretty sure it wasn't the fish. Those Sunday school children saw the water they just didn't know it was the Atlantic Ocean. [source: online]
Similarly, the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, which is today, is known as the Sunday of the Word of God and although Catholics are not popularly known for personal Bible reading, we may not realize it, but we hear in the Sunday Mass three-year cycle of readings, plus the two-year cycle of daily Mass readings:
13.5 percent of the Old Testament (not counting the Responsorial Psalms);
89.8 percent of the Gospels, and
71.5 percent of the entire New Testament. (source: Catholic.com)
And for those who pray the liturgy of the hours, they read nearly all the books of the Bible, and we have a group of parishioners who pray Morning Prayer of the liturgy after the 9 am weekday Mass.
As a side note, in 2019, the Pew Research Center did a computational analysis of nearly 50,000 on-line sermons on length and content and found that Catholic clergy preach much more briefly than clergy in mainline Protestant churches and evangelical churches, which is not always a bad thing; in fact, Pope Francis tells clergy to prepare their homilies well and told them to limit homilies to 10 minutes, and when he says this, people applaud vigorously. The Pew study also found, however, that Catholic homilies referred to New Testament Scripture 68% of the time and only 28% of the Old Testament, compared to 93%/66% for evangelical Protestants, and 82%/43% for mainline Protestant ecclesial communities.
It just so happens that also in 2019, as I mentioned, Pope Francis declared that “the third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the word of God…. A day devoted to the Bible, [which should] not be seen as a yearly event but rather a year-long event, for we urgently need to grow in our knowledge and love of the Scriptures and of the risen Lord, who continues to speak his word and to break bread in the community of believers.” [source: The Ordo].
The more we hear and read the Bible, the easier and more naturally it is to allow Jesus make us fishers of men, as Matthew 4:19 says today in our Gospel.
E.g. A few years ago I was talking about the Gospel reading at Mass with a family friend named Gloria and she was talking to me on her car’s speakers. She told me later that her brother Paul, who was traveling with her, heard our conversation. Gloria said that he had been away from the faith for over fifty years and she had been praying for his conversion. Later Gloria told me that he liked our conversation and he decided to go to Mass again, but later he told her that he was sad that because he could not go to communion. But, later he approached the parish priest and went to confession—that reminds me of the saying of being a Fisher of Men - I catch, HE cleans.
Paul also told Gloria that he joined a rosary group at his parish and even started going to Eucharistic Adoration. Gloria asked him what made him change his stubborn heart and he said that he felt Gloria’s joy in talking to me that day when she was driving.
The bait that attracted Paul was Gloria’s joy, which reminds me of the theme of “No room for gloom,” as we heard in our First Reading from Isaiah 9:2. Fish don't have eyelids, so they can't close their eyes. They are always watching to see if our faith is truly genuine and worthy of their attention.
“If you want to catch fish, you don’t use bait you like; you use bait the fish like.” [source: Scouting Magazine, March-April 2020.]—it could be watersports, a trip to the mountains, activities that people like, where a short testimony of sharing what Jesus has done for you can be shared.
However, people’s desire and hunger for God and personal change can outstrip their personal relationship with Jesus.
So, the first thing to say when fishing for people is the Kerygma— Kerygma rhythms with Charisma.
Kerygma means proclamation or announcement that Jesus suffered and died for you on the Cross and you can have forgiveness of your sins if you ask Him to come into your life as your personal Savior. You can certainly add some Scripture and explain it, like Ephesians 2:8, which the Church uses to explain salvation in the catechism, number 1996, “For by grace alone, you have been saved, in faith by Christ’s saving work, and not because of any merit on your part, we are accepted by and receive the Holy Spirit.” We still have to accept that gift by our free-will choices and persevere in possessing it, i.e., abiding in right relationship with Jesus (John 6:55-56; 15:1-11).
I see chunks of the kergma in each of the three memorial acclamations at Mass: “We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again,” or “When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again,” or “Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.”
Notice that the goal is to lead a person to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Later will come baptism, after catechesis in the R.C.I.A program, etc. Expert lay Catholics, like Sherry Weddell, who lead bishops and priests in evangelization workshops note that “it is often disconcerting for Catholics to realize that the basic kerygma that awakens Christian faith and leads to the Church is not primarily about the Church herself. I have run into numerous Catholics who fear that if we talk about Jesus, Catholics will be lured from the Church by the intoxicating discovery that a relationship with God can be personal as well as communal.
Sherry Weddell notes that if we don’t evangelize our own, someone else will- like evangelicals, Mormons, independent bible Christians. Your job is to preach the kerygma to those under your charge because if you don’t, you and yours will hear it in a modified form outside the Church and may come to the mistaken notion that a personal relationship with Jesus isn’t to be found in the Catholic Church.
Pope St. John Paul II and other popes wrote about the Keryma coming before catechesis or the catechism (cf. Catechesi Tradendae), and the keryma is officially part of the Pre-Catechumenate in R.C.I.A. (cf. General Directory for Catechesis 88). There is not a wall between evangelization by the Kergma and catechesis and the two can interact, but clearly the kerygma must come first.
e.g. In a booklet called, “How to Win Friends For Christ, written by seminarians at Mount Saint Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland, a Dale Carnegie quote is used, “The difference between an evangelist and a proselytizer is that the second has the goal of convincing you to believe because, in some sense, he or she thinks you are not lovable to God unless you believe and obey that doctrine. Proselytizers are often experts at arguing. But evangelists love you before they know you. They love you, and they believe God loves you…”
Cursillo neatly sums us that being a fisher of people as: Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ.
It is like the old Indian rajah, who, when handing over to his son a realm which he himself had administered with wonderful wisdom and prosperity, said, ‘My son, if you wish to be a successful ruler, get inside the skins of your people.’”
In order to teach John Latin, you must know Latin, you must know John,” like Christ Himself, who ‘knew what was in people.’ John 2:23.”
[source unknown].
Paul Tournier was a brilliant thinker and writer, and an influential Christian therapist during his time. Doctors from around the world traveled to his home in Switzerland to learn from him. He wrote, “It is a little embarrassing for students to come over and study my ‘techniques.’ They always go away disappointed because all I do is accept people.”
Source: https://therocketcompany.com/10-new-preaching-stories/
The Serra Club of Arlington, which promotes vocations to the priesthood and religious life, suggest that we invite men and women whom we sense God may be calling, e.g.--“I believe the Spirit begs us to verbalize what he has already been whispering…. The Lord is already at work within some of those of a discerning age, making their hearts and minds ready for an invitation.” [source: Father Michael P. McCandless, The Priest, May 2022, pg. 37.]
Many of us will leave the church today and we will get into our Toyota motorboats, our Ford motorboats, our Mercedes motorboats, or our Lexus motorboats and go cruising around the lakes with our children or relatives in car and never use some bait by talking about what you liked about the Scripture readings you heard at Mass. It’s better than kids fighting in the car! [source: internet]
When fishermen don’t fish, says Max Lucado, they fight, which can be seen in the background in our Second Reading today.
In conclusion, in canon law, under the heading of the obligations and rights of the lay Christian faithful in canons 224-231, we read that the laity do not require formal permission or deputation of church authorities to evangelize. This is a natural outgrowth of mission flowing from grace of the sacraments.
For example, if music and song writing is your gift, then compose a mission hymn or song that can be used at a Catholic school, religious education classes, vacation bible school, etc. If you teach Sunday school here at our parish, share bits of your testimony often at class of how Jesus has transformed your life. Faith comes from hearing, Romans 10:17 says, and people will listen more readily to teachers who are also witnesses.
In conclusion: The enormous value of the nets and the fishing boats to their owners or hirers requires no emphasis, so to abandon one's nets shows us as disciples to drop all competing interests by making time to read or hear the Bible read daily and reflect on it.
Scripture continues to provide a way of seeing and evaluating the problems of life because, in this sapiential or wisdom-confrontation, people can experience God, and share in their own words how it benefits them to others, as fishers of people.
Amen.
