Fishers of Men

Today's readings are so convicting and spoke right to my heart.

I was pondering and praying yesterday about the mission of Gifted & Sent Ministries. Part of our mission is to empower the faithful to recognize their own giftedness and to inspire them, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to use that giftedness to be missionaries.

The first reading today, from the letter to the Romans, speaks to the importance of our work as missionaries:

"But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent?"

And then the Gospel from Matthew further inspires us to live out our baptismal commitment to be missionaries. Jesus says, "I will make you fishers of men."

Fishers of men. What does that mean?

We are called to cast out our own net and fish for people to join us in our journey towards Heaven! The apostles clearly lived out that mission. Today is the Feast of Saint Andrew and Andrew lived out his mission to fish for men probably before he even realized what he was doing. In the gospel of John we hear Andrew say to Simon, his brother, "We have found the Messiah." And he brings Simon to meet Jesus.

Talk about ripple effect.

what would have happened if Andrew had remained silent? What would have happened if he had kept his knowledge of the Messiah to himself? What would have happened if Andrew had decided to only focus on his personal relationship with Jesus and not to worry about bringing others to him?

Who knows.

Praise be to God that he didn't. Praise be to God that he was brave and bold enough to invite others on the journey.

We are called to share Jesus, to bring our friends and family and acquaintances, and maybe even strangers to meet him. We are each gifted in a unique way and empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish this mission. We can not hide from it. We can not second guess ourselves. We can not deny this call and worry only about our own personal salvation. We can not give in to our self-doubt or to a world that tells us to keep quiet about our love for Jesus.

We are gifted.

We are sent.

So go...and be fishers of men...because "how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?"

< Older Post

Come Holy Spirit

By Jessica • November 12, 2021

Come Holy Spirit! An invocation. A cry. A plea. Three words that most of us, as Catholics, have uttered multiple times in our lives. "Come Holy Spirit!" with increasing intensity depending on the situation that we are facing. Do we know, though, who we are calling upon? Do we understand this person of the Trinity and His role in our lives? For most of us the answer is no. Pope Benedict XVI said that the Holy Spirit was the "neglected person of the Blessed Trinity". I find that to be such an accurate description. As a cradle Catholic who had worked in ministry my entire adult life, I had no idea who the Holy Spirit was. I had no idea the role that the Holy Spirit played in the life of the Church. I had no idea the power that a relationship with the Holy Spirit could possess. When I engaged in a relationship with the Holy Spirit my life was forever changed. That is not an overstatement. If you were, like me, raised in a conservative, traditional Catholic church you probably spent very little time hearing about the Holy Spirit. As-a-matter-of-fact you might even be averse to the idea of things that happen in the "power of the Holy Spirit". Let's be honest, for many of us the idea of things happening in the "power of the Holy Spirit" feels protestant. Now that I know better that idea makes me chuckle. It's silly, even, to think of the Holy Spirit that way. Still, I spent most of my life shying away from things that were done in the "power of the Holy Spirit". I all but avoided things that were described as "charismatic". When I was 19 years old I was singing at my first National Conference. It was the National Youth Minister’s Conference. I was getting ready to go on stage and I was terrified. I was the youngest performer there. I had never done anything like that in my life. There were thousands of youth ministers present. A fellow presenter asked if he could pray over me. My mouth said “sure”. My head said “what the heck for? This is so weird” Truth. That was 25 years ago…I still remember exactly how it felt. I still remember the exact way it felt when the Holy Spirit came over me…calmed me…changed me because I said yes, even though I didn’t really want to. That moment didn’t make me run towards a relationship with the Holy Spirit. I don’t think I fully understood what had happened to me right then. It did, however, open me up to the possibility of the power of the Spirit. It took away some of my inhibitions about prayer in the Holy Spirit and being prayed over. We all need to not only be open to the reality of the Holy Spirit, we need to actively seek out a relationship with this person of the Blessed Trinity. We can no longer allow the Holy Spirit to go unknown within the faithful, within ourselves. We need to be open to and embrace the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. Pope St. John Paul II said that "the institutional and charismatic aspects are co-essential" to the life of the Church. Come Holy Spirit! Fill the hearts of your faithful and renew the face of the earth!