Saturday – St Albert the Great

Gospel – Matthew 13:47-53 (optional reading for the day)

Gone Fishin!

Duc In Altum Chapel, Magdala

So, after many on-the-water adventures, here is my definition of fishing.  It’s a couple of minutes of either joyful success or utter failure surrounded by hours and hours of absolutely nothing, mostly utter failure.

When you finally snag something on your line, it can be anything from a clump of seaweed, a piece of garbage, a fish so small you have to throw it back, tangled lines with your fishing buddy or maybe an actual keeper.  Don’t get me wrong, those long hours of boredom can be very relaxing and meditative.  But the real thrill, the real sense of hope and anticipation comes when you feel that pull on your line.  You think maybe this is the ‘big one’, the one I can tell stories about the rest of my life.  But hope meets reality only when your hook breaks the surface of the water and hope transforms into reality.  You never know, you hope, you pray, but you never really know for sure until you haul it into the boat.

So it is with today’s Gospel.  At the end of time, God will pull all of us into the boat.  He hopes that the catch (us) will all be keepers.  He wants all of us to share in the Kingdom.  But nothing is for sure, not until we break the surface of the water and are brought into the boat.  Until then, it is all up to us, how we live, how we treat others.  God always offers His guidance, His love and His grace but the choice of how to live this life falls to us.  Dare I say it?  Sink or Swim!

Creator, help me today to keep my focus on You and how I can best serve You.  Guide me and lead me forward along the Red Road so that I may always be alive to Your presence in my life.