A Reflection for Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
The scent of patriarchy is strong in today’s readings. A male God speaks to his begotten male child; men are called by a man to be fishers of men. I wonder sometimes, if all the main characters in the Gospel stories were women, would men today be able to see themselves in these accounts? Would they be as adept as we women are at overlooking gender in the ancient texts in order to see themselves reflected and addressed there?
I’ll grant that the point today is not to quibble over the profusion of male pronouns in Biblical readings, but to unwrap the gift that God offers all of us every day: to fish. The men whom Jesus invited to follow him were fishermen. They already knew how to fish. But what could it mean to be “fishers of men?” What was it about Jesus that made them leave their boats and nets and livelihoods and even their own father? They trusted Jesus enough to go all in with him, to believe him as he proclaimed the Kingdom of God at hand. They were called. They were transformed.
We may not have boats and nets to relinquish, but we have plenty of other worldly concerns and obsessions that keep us from abandoning ourselves to Jesus when we are called. Our narrowed field of vision may hinder us from becoming fishers of men, but we have been afforded the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel good news in a way that is inclusive of the other half of humankind. We are called to be fishers of people. Our bait is Christ’s message of love for everyone.
It's not always easy to see ourselves in the earliest followers of Jesus, especially if we are not men. But membership in the body of Christ is not passed through the male line. We women and we LGBT people have been amongst Christ’s followers for centuries. We’re here now. We’re worthy. We belong. The call is ours. When we fish in the waters of faith, we catch devotion, hope, sacrifice, wonder, mercy, joy, pain, compassion, fellowship, love, transformation. When we fish with the Spirit, we are to share this timeless bounty with everyone. “Todos, todos, todos,” Pope Francis told the young people at World Youth Day. All of us, all of us, every one of us together. We fish. We fish. We fish.
