Fishing trip a reminder of God’s zest for life

Daniel Joseph Becnel
June 20, 2008
June 25
June 25, 2008
Daniel Joseph Becnel
June 20, 2008
June 25
June 25, 2008

A missionary priest in the Pacific has given us the following edited story:

“It was my birthday and I wanted to celebrate it in the way that I loved the most: Fishing. I went to this very remote island with this person whom I recently met after Mass. With only my fishing gear and well-worn backpack, we roamed around the tiny village looking for any fishing vessel leaving for the sea that late afternoon. He introduced me to this man who owned a wooden boat big enough for 15 people.


The skipper was reluctant at first, “Father, please, I beg your understanding. I cannot allow you on board my boat. You see, my crew would surely feel so awkward because of your presence and chances are they could not concentrate on their tasks at hand. You probably could not withstand the unforgiving waves out in the open sea – you would surely get sick. I am sorry, Father. I promise that you will get the best fish in the morning when we come back.”


I would not give up easily, “Please, sir, just try it. I assure you everything will be just fine. All you have to do is treat me as you would any ordinary extra hand. Besides, I assure you that this trip would not be my first and I have never been seasick before. Think of this favor as your gift to me on my birthday today.”

After a while, he and his crew were excited to have a priest on board. Some of them had never seen a priest in short pants and a rugged pair of sandals. The skipper and his crew had a great time with me. After the initial shock, they finally saw me as a person and not as a man of the cloth. They were amused to see a priest eating with his bare hands like they did, devouring food from the cover of an aluminum pot and calling it a night without brushing his teeth.


Most of all, they discovered that I did not mind at all if they could not serve a special grape wine I was used to drinking at Mass. Instead, they served Tanduay Rum, a drink for ordinary poor folks like themselves.

Actually, we did not sleep much. We spent the few hours telling jokes and laughing with all our hearts before the “lowering of nets” 70 feet below. Before dawn, after the crew had hauled in their huge fishing net, I could see tons of fish on the deck of the boat. On my part, I was just too happy to settle for two rock cods weighing a humble four and eight pounds, respectively. (Your own catch always tastes much sweeter!)

What made my experience with those humble fishermen so memorable were their oft-repeated words to me: “Father, thank you for being with us. Never in our wildest dream did it occur to us that a priest would go down to our level like this. Some of us have not been in church for years. Please remember us always in your prayers.”

Sometimes, you get to share God to people without even mentioning to them anything about Him. And you get to experience the joy in life just being with people who do not pretend to know anything about religion.

If you look at their concrete lives, without them trying to analyze anything, they are in fact showing who God really is: Someone who simply enjoys the company of His children who always believe that life is full of wonder and surprises.

Just like fishing, the excitement is in the mystery: You never know when fish will bite and what kind or how many.