Some things came together today, Tuesday, August 13, 2019, for me in the area of finding meaning in experience. First, I read online the daily Scripture – Dt. 31:1-8; Mt. 18:1-5,10,12-14 – which I try to do each day on USCCB. Second, as I was scrolling through the Sirius/XM lineup on my car radio, I stopped at the ‘Phish’ channel and listened as I drove to my Mom’s and from my Mom’s apartment after my visit. Trey Anastasio played a song from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, “Fishing for Fishies,” which I liked. Yesterday’s Gospel reading was Mt. 17:22-27 and I’d been pondering its potential meanings off and on for a day now. The 2nd part of the passage involves fish.
24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
New International Version (NIV)
Peter and other disciples of Jesus were fishermen.
The lyrics of the King Gizzard song advocate against fishing.
Fishing for fishies
Don’t make them feel happy
Or me neither
I feel so sorry for fishies
It seems like cruelty to me
And I’m hungry, leave them be
I don’t want to be fishing for fish
I just want to let them freely swim
I don’t want to be fishing for fish
I just want to let them freely swim
All heights honk
Egos tying knots being fate
Don’t do it
You ain’t a God
Don’t hunt salmon, cod or carp
In our day, we have the environmental problem of overfishing and possible extinction of species. This was not an issue in Jesus’ era, two-thousand years ago.
I’m still thinking and pondering.
Addendum (8/14/19): So I experienced yesterday a triple coincidence of media with a theme of ‘fish.’ The combination impels me to think more about the gospel passage and its deep meaning. Carl Jung, psychologist, wrote on this phenomenon of meaningful coincidence, calling it
“synchronicity.”[8/16/19] “…Jesus claims that because he and his disciples are the sons of God the King, they should not pay any tax” (J.C. Fenton, The Gospel of St. Matthew (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1978), p. 284). Not to give offense to others is a moral rule to take from this gospel reading.
About paulyr2
Single male, b. 1955, U.S. citizen, Italian, Christian, B.A. (Political Science) Seton Hall Univ., M.T.S. (Theological Studies) Drew Univ.
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