Pondering this letter, I was especially struck by how Jesus’ command to put out into the deep and let down our nets for a catch is directed toward my own congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Rose of Lima. Though surrounded by the particular deep waters of the lies about the human person that have so invaded the culture, we find ourselves called to preach truth precisely here and now by our actions.
This is not new territory for Dominicans, since St. Dominic’s own mission was to the Albigensians. For them too, false beliefs about the created world and the human person led not only to their de-valuing of them, but kept them from knowing Jesus Christ as true God and true Man.
Our foundress, Ven. Rose Hawthorne, worked to bring knowledge of God to those whose dignity as children of God was ignored in her own time. Giving free nursing care to the poor dying of cancer who had been abandoned by the world, she communicated the generous, truly compassionate love of God who came to suffer in the flesh to redeem them. Similarly, the attacks on the truth now encroaching upon us distort the reality of the essential unity of the human body and soul, and the inviolable worth of both. On a societal level, we are already facing state pressure to compromise our faith by allowing or referring people to assisted suicide, or by aligning our nursing with transgender ideology.
On a personal level, we are already encountering the great damage such social norms inflict upon the most vulnerable. To those already suffering the burden of incurable illness is added the weight of believing that their lives are pointless when diminished, that they are inconvenient to others, and that they are not worth someone taking the time to enter into their pain. The casting of nets that we are called to here is a patient striving to give gentle, affectionate, and attentive personal care that includes both body and soul.
We must not be afraid to speak of Jesus to them, to tell them with our deeds and our words that He redeems and heals through suffering by His love that is stronger than death. By honoring their flesh, we must preach to them the truth about themselves and about the God whose love brought Him to take on this human flesh. Here is where our fishing also becomes shepherding. Feeding the sheep, tending and binding their wounds both physical and spiritual are how we go fishing even in the valley of the shadow of death.
Do we have faith that the Good Shepherd is present in the depths of the valley, comforting, anointing, and lavishing abundant life on fish and sheep alike? To obey Jesus’ command to fish and to shepherd is pure gift and a work of grace. I know it is necessary to ask for this faith in prayer, in order to follow in the footsteps of St. Dominic and Rose Hawthorne who embraced both tasks. I believe that here we also have great cause for hope – as Dominicans do we not hold obedience in high esteem, and believe in the providence of God who gives what He commands?
— Sr. Mary Pietrina, OP
Congregation of St. Rose of Lima
