My favorite fishing story doesn’t even involve me – its about my brothers John and Jay. We lived in a great neighborhood growing up – but one of the best things the “hood” had was what we referred to as “the woods”. You could do just about anything in the woods – hike through them to another world (well, another neighborhood), ride your bike on the trails through the woods and it had a creek. It doesn’t sound like much now, but you could spend hours there and never get bored. My youngest brother Jay had always wanted to go fishing so my brother John got permission from Mom to take Jay down to the creek and go fishing. Now you need to understand that my dad wasn’t one to do much camping or fishing, he preferred his water and woods be on a golf course. We had plenty of old golf clubs laying around but no fishing poles. With that in mind, my brother John had to fashion a fishing pole from a stick pulled from our front tree with a rather long string tied to the end of it. I’m not sure what he used for a hook (or even if he used one at all) but he did manage to tie a piece of bread (or possibly bologna) to the end of it for bait. They made the long trek to the end of the neighborhood where the woods were located, got to the creek and Jay cast out the line into the creek and waited patiently for the fish to bite. From the way John tells the story, that patience lasted about 10-20 seconds and then Jay announced these fish aren’t biting and they went home.
That is my favorite fishing story. Today’s Gospel has a pretty good fishing story too. How would you feel if you caught a fish, opened its mouth and found enough money to pay your taxes? (I’ve already been outside looking for a stick and some kite string.) It’s amazing to me the ways in which God provides. There have been many times when Sarah were facing having to pay for something we didn’t have the money for but God always seemed to have us catch the fish with the money in its mouth. God will provide but you have to put your trust in Him first. My advice to any young couple getting married is to always give of your “first fruits” to Him. Give that money to Him freely to do with it as He sees fit and necessary. It is something Sarah and I have done faithfully and I am convinced because of this, God has always protected us and provided for us in times when we needed that support.
Do something great for our Lord today – share with Him because He alone is the source of all your treasures. All that we have comes from our Father; all that we offer says thanks to Him. Just as God will provide for us, we too must provide for others.
God’s will, not mine, be done.
Be not afraid; just have faith.
Jesus, I trust in You.
He must increase; I must decrease.
St. Mary Magdalen Men of God 