CASTING THE LORD'S NET

APOLOGIES. A week ago our IT department replaced my laptop, but in the process I lost access to my blog. I had already written my post in Google.docs but was unable to post it. So now that all is well again I'm presenting at last the week-old post, Sorry about that! 

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Two main trains of thought have been coming together in my mind over the past few days.

First, on Friday (Feb.7) I attended the funeral of Father James O’Donnell,O.S.B. who was 95 years old. This ceremony was a time for me to reflect on my own death, even though I am only 82. The beautiful homily ended with that lovely Bible verse “Well done, good and faithful servant.“

I did not have long to reflect on the implications of the funeral before the secondmain thought intruded. This time it came from the first reading for today’s (Sunday Feb 9) mass. It ends with the prophet Isaiah saying to the Lord, “Here I am, send me!“ And then the gospel told of Jesus choosing his first apostles and assuring them that they will become “fishers of men.“

Suddenly, my meditations shifted from “Well done, good and faithful servant” to “Here I am, send me.”

Maybe the two verses combine best into this thought of mine: "I believe that the morning the Lord no longer needs me to be his apostle I will wake up dead."

It is actually pretty easy for me to see what the Lord is asking of me right now, how he is expecting me to catch others in the net of his divine love. I live in a community of fourteen monks and spend time every day with the children of our school community (grades K-12). So my question becomes “How does the Lord need me to bear witness to him in these different communities?”  Then this question quickly expands to include my wider community of friends and family. 

I’m called to “catch” all of these and others in the “net” of God’s all-embracing love by my words and actions and attitudes.  

At some point the Lord is going to say to me, I trust, “Well done, good and faithful servant.“ Then I will begin a new phase of my life, during which I will continue in heaven to pray for all of my brother monks, friends and family who will be counting on my intercession.

But until that day, I hope to continue casting my net like a good apostle.