The First Immaculate Reception

I got distracted by Mother Nature and forgot to share my column from this week's church bulletin. The fun about writing about any of the Gospels is the most of us know all the stories. We just don't always think about how they relate to our daily lives today.

The First Immaculate Reception 

Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who found the Super Bowl a bit on the boring side last Sunday. My main excitement was checking the scores at the end of each quarter to see if I was getting any returns on my, uhm, investments. (I did, by the way.)

Usually, my reprieve from a less-than-stellar game is the commercials. Everyone releases their really good ones for this incredibly large viewing audience. This year, though… meh. Nothing that great, if you ask me.

One commercial that did stand out? The one where more than 40 current and former NFL players appeared in the league's tackle-filled commercial, called “The 100-Year Game.” It culminated with, what else, one of the most famous plays in the history of American football – the Immaculate Reception. It even had former Steelers fullback Franco Harris in the scene to re-create that historic and controversial play. Pretty cool.

In today’s gospel reading, we read about a different kind of “catch.”

We find ourselves by the Lake of Gennesaret – a.k.a. the Sea of Galilee. Jesus sees some fishermen who have had an unsuccessful day of it. He urges them to cast their nets one more time. Despite skepticism, they do it. And soon find themselves knee deep in more fish than they know what to do with. They’re thrilled and, at the same time, probably pretty freaked out by what just occurred.

“Do not be afraid,” Jesus says to them, “from now on you will be catching people.”

Catching people? Yes, catching people. I remember a song we used to sing in Sunday School when I was a girl. “I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men, I will make you fishers of men – if you follow me…” (There were even some fun actions, too, that I can demonstrate when no one’s looking.)

And what made for a good catch? Oh, people like you and me. Not perfect, but humble enough to know we need God’s help, guidance, and love to get us through life. Willingness to open our hearts, let Him in, and share His good news.

Did Jesus and his team do an end-zone dance after every catch? Probably not. But I’m sure they were joyous and thankful. In God’s eyes, catching each one of us has been an Immaculate Reception. Praise the Lord for that!