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Fishers of people

“Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” — Matthew 4:19, Community Bible

After being baptized, empowered and tested by the Spirit as Son of God, Jesus started his mission to call people to repentance and establish God’s Kingdom on earth (Mt.4).

The Kingdom is a new community characterized by a new way of life, a new kind of relationship guided by what Jesus called the weightier aspects of the law such as justice, mercy and honesty (cf.Mt.23:23). In this new community, the poor are accepted, the sick are made whole again, and those who mourn are comforted. There is peace and purity of heart. Even enemies are loved (cf.Mt.5). To love God is to love the “least of the brethren”(cf.Mt.25). It is indeed an ideal community.

To establish this new community is not an easy task. Jesus needed people’s participation. He took notice of the fisher-folks of his day who were just ordinary people. But then it has been the fact of history that genuine change often comes from the ordinary.

Have we ever thought why in the world Jesus call fisher-folks, like Simon, Andrew, James, and John to be his disciples? Is there something special in the character of fisher-folks that somehow compelled Jesus to call on them to follow him?

We notice some general qualities of fisher-folks that are also deemed necessary in the task of building God’s Kingdom on earth. First and foremost, fisher-folks generally have the patience. They learn through experience how to wait patiently until the fish have taken the baits. An impatient fisher-folk cannot have a good catch.

Building a community with a new way of life cannot be done overnight. It is a long process that badly requires patience. An impatient person cannot be a good agent for change.

Moreover, fisher-folks have perseverance. They know by experience that there are times when their nets are full, and there are also occasions when they don’t have any catch at all. But nevertheless, they have to try it again and again.

Establishing God’s Kingdom of justice and peace on earth needs perseverance. There are times in the struggle for change when people, for some reasons or another, simply do not believe in what we are saying and doing. And our efforts seem to have no apparent results at all. But we have to go on in the struggle. This is the way through which genuine change comes. Jesus says, “those who persevere to the end will be saved” (Mt.24:13).

Furthermore, fisher-folks have courage. They learn through experience that to live as fisher-folk is to live a courageous life. They have to face each day the risks and the fury of the sea.

Similarly, the task of transformation also requires a great amount of courage. Telling the truth in a society ruled by lies and deceit is a dangerous thing to do. Translating the truth into concrete expressions of love and concern is even more dangerous.

Our country is an archipelago. There are about 34,600 kilometers of coastline, the longest in the world. There are approximately 132 rivers and 59 lakes aside from the numerous small mountain streams in our country. But while fish are so nutritious and supposed to abound in Philippine waters, malnutrition is so prevalent in our country even among small fisher-folks themselves. Subsistence fisher-folks all over the country can only talk of their miserable plight and blame the government for the neglect and destruction of the Philippine fishing industry.

Like Simon, Andrew, James, and John, fisher-folks today must also heed the call to participate in the task of building God’s Kingdom of justice and peace on earth. In other words, fisher-folks must also be fishers of people. For unless Philippine society is transformed into a community of justice, mercy and honesty, the fisher-folks themselves would not be saved at all from their already drowning situation.#

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