Daily Reflections ...

Since I was a young child my family and I have gone to the beach for holidays. One of the things that I enjoyed doing at the beach was fishing but I was never really any good at it. So, one day I devised a master plan and got my dad to buy me a drag net. I convinced my brother to help me and after getting the fish excited by putting bread in the water, we dragged this big net through the sea way. Sometimes, we caught up to twenty-five fish of many different shapes and sizes some of which we didn’t even know existed. Don’t worry we put them all back.

This is the image that comes to mind when I hear this parable that Jesus tells to the crowd. Which character are you in this story ? Most of us will automatically relate to the fish. We are in this big world and at the end of time we hope that we are classified as the “good fish” and welcomed into the kingdom of heaven. Some of us see ourselves as part of the crowd, spectators, not yet in the mix of things. Perhaps you identify with Jesus, the storyteller and teacher.

There is one often overlooked character in this story that we are all called to be regardless of who we are or where we are on our journey, namely, the net. The net does the catching and gathering of all the fish. The net does not discriminate nor is it the sorter of the fish. Its job is to catch and hold the fish for the fisher. That is what we are all called to be.

Who are the fish in your life that need to be caught and brought to Jesus.

by Isaac Falzon