According to the book of Matthew 4:18, The First Disciples, Matthew writes ‘And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. He said to them, “ Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.’
It is a remarkable passage as all passages are from the Bible for there is so much wisdom and so much to learn in every word. This one, for me, has had more significance especially in those moments of confusion, doubt or even in just everyday life. What do I mean? Well, as Christ called His apostles to follow Him, learn and then preach the Gospel, we, too, are called. While the first twelve Apostles lived their lives in devotion to Jesus, we can too in yet another way, a way that strengthens us all, those we know and those we don’t.
While the fishermen of old used nets to cast and gather their sustenance, we can as well but with a tool more personal and modern, a tool we are much more familiar with especially in the company of good friend and family. Today, most of the people I know use fishing poles to cast a line into the water hoping against hope to bring in a Large Mouth Bass, Trout or Bluefish. It is a simple tool, but an effective one. But how does this apply here?
My grandparents, my mother and father and Christ Himself put great weight in prayer and, as we all know, prayer is powerful especially in the light of Christ’s love and the Virgin Mary’s intercession. In this I make a suggestion: Cast a prayer.
Cast a prayer? Hmmm. Ok, let me explain. There are often times where I find myself struggling with my own troubles and crosses to bear, wondering how I am to overcome the challenges that I am facing. It is often in times like this that I see the ‘innocents ‘ and ‘poor souls’ that my grandfather and Christ Himself so often spoke of. The crippled old woman struggling to walk, the angry inner city youth fomenting hate, the persecuted Christians or others we see or hear about on television, a beautiful child in a wheelchair or the mentally ill that openly walk our streets, there are so many, all need God’s Grace. These are the souls that we are called to cast a prayer for and become the Lord’s ‘Fisher’s of men’ in our troubled world. This is not just another nice thought or vapid act. It is deeply real and doing so changes us into true followers of Christ for we stop being people who see just our own troubles. We begin to see the world Christ sees, a world full of innocents, those who need saving, those who are good at heart, who suffer far greater than we do, who are lonely and lost, who do not have the advantages of life we too often take for granted, those who hurt just like us and need our help, who so desperately need the love of Christ and hence, ours too. For what is God? It says in the Bible in 1 John 4:8: ‘He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.’ Love is indeed a powerful thing.
The other day, after Church I saw a man quite like one of the possessed souls in the New Testament Christ healed, cursing loudly with long uncut hair, talking to himself dressed in clothes that were too big and with what appeared to be his son walking painfully, but diligently behind. What problems they had I did not know, but I stopped and felt a great deal of empathy. I could not do much to help, but I thought that the next best thing was to ‘Cast a Prayer.’ I did, asking God to help him, his son and his family. To enter in their lives and heal the evil which had so evidently taken hold. I left it to Christ, to our Savior with His great love and strength to heal this man and his family. It was a small thing, but in a significant way it made me a quiet Apostle, what I would call a ‘Fisher of Men.’ Please note, I do not in any way compare myself to the true apostles. I am human and so full of my own faults. How this would strengthen Christianity, our faith and our world as well. We would no longer see ourselves as victims of our own personal troubles, but as the Lord’s soldiers doing Christ’s work. I don’t believe Christ’s always asks us to shout our faith from the mountaintop unless needed. He does, though, ask us to do so from the inner and private depth of our own souls and conscience.
Yes, the world can be a formidable place, but where there is love there is God, and where there is God there is always hope and, eventually, victory. How better to fight the ‘Good Fight’ by fighting for those who need it the most, for those who Christ came to save, the downtrodden and suffering souls for we all are, in some way or another. For when we pray for others we also pray for ourselves. It is in this humility, this honesty, that we practice our Orthodox Christian faith so well. We are never helpless, never real victims, but will always be victorious when we become Christ’s ‘Fisher’s of Men.’
