Pets, Fishing, and Caught in the Net of Love

I like animals. I?ve gotten very close to some in my life, and the affection of a pet is a wonderful and unforgettable experience.? Animals have natures which they are bound to follow. It is the rare pet that will pass up a treat, and even rarer is the pet that will say: ?I?ve given that up for Lent.?

Humans are different. We are made to share the life of God, but in our freedom we can reject that highest destiny and become far worse than the beasts. All humans are wounded by original sin, and, sooner or later, all humans find it hard to live with others because of those wounds: our own, those others inflict on us, those we inflict on others. ?How often we hear people say they prefer animals to people! Without grace?without God reaching into our world?we are lost, and things will only get worse. How much safer to relate to a pet who will always respond as nature dictates.

Yet God has not abandoned man, and has sent His Son into the human mess to model man?s high destiny?sacrificial love, freely chosen?to pave the way and to show the way to become who God wants us to be. It is much easier to catch fish, and likely much more profitable in the short run. But what a marvelous task: to catch men, men who are lost in an ocean full of sharks, men who float aimlessly through life, confused, purposeless. To catch them in a net of love and lead them out of the world in which they will otherwise drown into the light and air of the God who calls them to their highest destiny. And how blessed are we to be in the bark of Peter: first, caught in his net, and then, by the grace of God, taking our turn at the nets!

?Fr. Raymond Gawronski, S.J.

Source: http://jesuitprayer.org/pets-fishing-and-caught-in-the-net-of-love/

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