Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

fish

How Can We Catch People

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What Luke shares with us in this Gospel is a good example of how Jesus models the saying: actions speak louder than words.

So if you will, picture this with me, if you will – put yourself in the scene.

It’s midmorning.  Jesus is meditatively strolling at the water’s edge.  I suspect He may have been virtually unaware that people were beginning to trail him.  The crowd is swelling.  This causes Jesus to edge closer to the advancing waves of the changing tide.  The eagerness of the crowd is palpable in the air – just to hear a word from Jesus.  He turns to face the crowd, putting his back to the water.  The scene causes him to draw a breath and take a step backward.  Now the waters are lapping above his ankles.  He spies a couple fishing boats; one belonging to his friend Simon.  He presumes permission to step in.  And what does He do?  Remember last week’s lesson?  HE SITS TO TEACH.  As the crowd is settling down, He looks around at the empty boats and thinks “What a pity!  The fish are right there.  But they didn’t take a nibble.  Let’s fix that.”

Now, these boatmen have spent all night fishing without success.  They are tired, discouraged, disheartened.  And so far their morning has been spent prudently cleaning their nets lest the debris they did manage to trawl would not rot and get too smelly to attract any fish tomorrow.

We don’t know what Jesus taught from the boat that morning; Luke did not have any first-hand experience to share.  What we do know is what Luke heard from those who were there.  He tells us that Jesus surprised Simon and his buddies telling them to “put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  Can’t you just hear Simon draw a vexed breath?  He’s professional fisherman; learned the trade from his father and grandfather.  “Come on, Jesus.  We’ve worked all night but have caught nothing.”  You know the feeling.  How often have you said (or at least thought) we’ve tried that before?  But Peter pauses.  Maybe makes eye contact with Jesus.  Mmmm.  “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

That’s the operative sentiment.  “If you say so, I will let down the nets.”  The boats were suddenly miraculously full of fish so that they began to sink.  And this after a long night of frustration – not a single fish to show for their efforts.  Amazement struck them.  Peter, (and maybe the others, we don’t know) fell to his knees and begged Jesus, “Get away from me – I am a sinful man!”

Ah, sweet Jesus!  We know what Jesus said.  He’s said it to us more than once.  “Do not be afraid.”  As he counsels Peter, He uses a word that in Greek means, “to catch alive.”  He’s caught Peter alive with yearning.  Ripe for his new vocation, a new mission that He’s about to offer.  “From now on you will be catching people.”  We turn now to the words from Isaiah in the First Reading: “God touched my mouth (in Peter’s case in today’s Gospel – “touched your nets, your labor”).  God, the Lord, continues, “See, now that this has touched you, your wickedness is removed.”  Then God asks – invites, challenges – “Whom shall I send?  Who will go?”

With Peter – and so many, many others who’ve followed through the years, we answer, “Here I am, send me!”  We add the words of Psalm 138, “When I called, you answered.  You built up strength with in me.  Your right hand saved me.  You will complete what You have done for me.  Your kindness endures forever.”

“When the fisherman brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.”  Your life, the life of each of us, tells the rest of the story.  But it leaves us with a question.  “How can we catch people?  What waters do we have to wade out into?  What are the nets we can lower?”  One thing we know for certain.  We know we want to keep Jesus on our side of the boat.  Seems to me this is pretty much the question Pope Francis and our Bishop Parkes is dangling as a challenge to us.  What bait will we put on the hook?  Or what kind of net will we lower?  How will we live out our Benedictine charism of prayer, hospitality and stability in community?

An answer lies in today’s Gospel: live it – be it – do it … that’s the bait.  Now, invite others to “lower their nets” and let’s break bread together.”

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading:  Isaiah 6:1-2:3-8     Second Reading:  1Cor 15:3-8, 11
Gospel:  Luke 5:1-11

 

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Earth Day

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Earth Day – April 22, 2021

How long will it last?  Earth —  Pandemic  —  Humanity  —  Water  —  What I bought  —  Life.  Initially, the direction of this Earth Day sharing covered so many issues of concern that it was overwhelming to focus on the positive.  So many obvious dark realities are competing for attention – earth’s rising temperatures from gases trapping earth’s heat, climate changes, deforestation, intensified weather crises, waste from factory emissions, and imbalance of wealth and poor.  Is there light at the end?  What will lift our spirits?

What do we often think about?  Is it global or narrow?  One great answer on this Earth Day is our focus on living in harmony with all nature.  It is very possible to do more with less, to be eco-efficient and very many people are needed to do that.  For Sister Miriam in our aquaponics, many happy fish create our solution to countless possibilities and make for a peaceful harmonious spirit.  We work locally and think and pray globally.  Now take a look at a wider scale.

Some world-wide restoration is under way.  Homegrown food gardens are flourishing.  Roof-top gardens are being engineered on city buildings in 39 states for plants to grow in a layer of soil to cycle water.  The idea is that plants take in carbon, are food, and make oxygen.  The common factor here is healthy soil since the more plants and trees there are, the more carbon is sent to the ground where it belongs, then the more microbes there are, and the better everything grows.  Also, regenerative agriculture is aiding to reverse climate change using natural practices, some of which the monastery is doing.  Also on the world-wide scale, waste gasification is happening by a few companies who turn trash from homes and offices into low emission fuels.  Policy makers, entrepreneurs and farmers are increasingly looking to restoring soils in their goal to slow climate change.  Sadly, so many consumers give little thought to waste, plastics and the usual fate of single-use containers, as if individuals can’t make a difference.  Do the materials in your purchases bio-degrade to become soil in Earth’s biological cycle?  More than 90% of materials used to make durable goods in our nation become waste almost immediately.  Do we need less?  A guest speaker, Sister Karen Joseph, OSB, years ago advised, “Refuse to consume more than we need.”

Our aquaponics/hydroponics systems have sustained the monastery and local friends’ fresh food needs doing more than we ever thought possible.  On average, we yield 500 pounds of fresh vegetables and fruit per three Florida seasons in addition to 200 fresh fish harvests.  Our fish are the sustainable answer and make so much possible.

When you asked why the Earth is warming and wanted answers, each of these projects and countless others are doable solutions to restore and save our Earth.  We must take personal responsibility, do more.

It’s so difficult for this fish farmer to focus in on one current issue that it needs a whole week of intensive training by expert instructor Phil Reasons to cover, and when “normal life” returns there will again be aquaponics/hydroponics sessions here at Holy Name Monastery.  We have so many “fishy” friendships and one of the greatest bond we have is that to God’s beautiful Earth.  How engaged to the Earth can a person be?  We have a volunteer program for willing hearts and hands, so connect with us if you want to get more engaged on this Earth Day, and Happy Birthday to Phil and Lukie Reasons on their joint birthday!

~by Sister Miriam Cosgrove, OSB

 

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What bread will you and I eat today?

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We live: hungry people in a hungry world.  Everyone is looking for something that will sustain and nourish their life, something that will feed and energize them, something that will fill and satisfy.  Everyone is looking for bread.  The problem is not that we are hungry, but the kinds of bread we eat.

Think about the variety of bread we eat at our own table: wheat, multi-grain, plain white; pita pockets, hoagie rolls, English muffins, French bread and Jewish bagels and Challah bread; And, oh my goodness, the homemade varieties we get: biscuits and scones, crescent rolls, pull bread, sliced bread …. Toasted, warmed, plain, garlic sprinkled, seeded or stuffed bread… Banana bread, raisin bread, cheese bread and don’t overlook all the gluten-free breads available in the markets.  The list goes on and on.  This is a short-list representative of the varieties of bread being eaten in our lives and in the world today.

In war-torn countries both sides are eating the bread of violence and war.  In our country in the political world Republicans and Democrats, share the bread of negativity, hostility, and name-calling.  In the social-corporate world both sides are eating the bread that objectifies and depersonalizes another human being.  Many eat the bread of having to be right and get our own way.  We eat the bread of hurt feelings and resentment.  Sometimes we eat the bread of loneliness, fear, and isolation.  There are times we eat the bread of sorrow or guilt.  Other times we eat the bread of power and control; or the bread of revenge or one-up-manship.  We eat all kinds of bread.  The bread we eat reveals something about the nature of our appetites.

The world is full of bread and yet far too many live hungry, empty; searching what will fill their bellies and sustain them; waking day after day disappointed, asking God for a miracle.  It’s a sure sign that the bread we have eaten cannot give real life.  It is perishable bread that nourishes only a perishable appetite so it leaves us wanting more, more, more.

The bread we eat may fill our belly, may even bloat us but it’ not of lasting value – it passes through our bodily system.  Not all bread is nutritious.  If you want to know the nutritional value of bread, you have to look beyond the bread.  Where did it come from?  What are its ingredients?

That’s what Jesus is teaching in this gospel.  The people have shown up hungry.  But, just yesterday Jesus fed 5000 of them with five loaves and two fish.  Today they show up and their first question is, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

They do not marvel at yesterday’s miracle and give thanks for Jesus’ generosity, or even wonder who this rabbi is.  They’re just worried they might have missed the next meal, that Jesus started without them and they are too late.  They did not perceive the meaning of the sign, the miracle, in first feeding.  They saw just fish and bread.  They either refused or were unable to see beyond the fish and bread.  They are interested only in their own appetites and Jesus knows it.

“Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill.”  They are concerned for their bellies.  Jesus is concerned for their lives.  The people want to feed themselves with bread.  Jesus wants to feed them with God.  “Do not work for the food that perishes,” he tells them, “but for the food that endures for eternal life.”

The food that endures is Jesus himself.  He is the bread that is broken and distributed for the life of the world.  He is the bread that is broken and yet never divided.  He is the bread that is eaten and yet the value is never exhausted.  He is the bread that consecrates those who believe in and eat him – his flesh, his blood.

When we believe in Jesus, eating, ingesting, and taking him into our lives, we live differently.  We see ourselves and one another as persons created in the image and likeness of God.  We trust the silence of our prayer life.  We choose love and forgiveness and reconciliation.  We relate with intimacy and vulnerability.  We listen with “the ear of our heart” for God’s voice.

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus tells us.  “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  Jesus is offering us himself – the imperishable bread that nourishes and sustains imperishable life.

So, what bread will we offer our guests and co-workers? What bread will you and I eat today?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
First Reading Exodus 16:2–4, 12–15                        Second Reading Ephesians 4:17, 20–24
Gospel John 6:24–35
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