If you follow me, it’s people you’ll catch, says Jesus in today’s gospel. We all agree that we want to follow Jesus and come closer to God. But why are we so shy about fishing for others? Why do we find it hard to try and bring others to Christ?

Is it a cultural thing? Have we bought into the great deception that it’s not the done thing to parade our faith on our sleeve? Yet if our faith is the single most important thing about our whole lives, how can we think of wearing it in our pocket? If our Christian belief is the one thing that makes sense of our existence, that provides us with the wherewithal to cope with what life throws at us, then how can we think of keeping it to ourselves and not trying to get others to experience it?

Don’t talk about religion or politics, the saying goes. But if religion is about the ultimate meaning of life and politics is about how we organise it, then not to talk about either of them condemns us to the pleasantries of surface-living. Yet life’s issues are deeper than talking about the weather, and faith’s issues touch the core of reality.

Could it be that we’re afraid of talking to others about our faith because we think we will be shown to be lacking? Is it because we feel ashamed and embarrassed because religious people are often caricatured as cranks in the media? Is it because we don’t want to disturb people? Would we not disturb someone whose coat was on fire? Would we never tell a crying child that the toy needs to be switched on before it will work properly?

If we’re not prepared to lead people towards God, then who is? And yet leading people to God is part of our “contract”. To be a follower of Christ implies that we too proclaim the good news to the ends of the earth. Or at the very least to the ends of our street. If we talk to others and they begin to ask us questions that we can’t answer, then it’s a simple task to put them in touch with those who can. We’re not expected to be geniuses or oracles. We’re not expected to become full-time missionaries in some far-flung country. We’re not expected to become experts on all matters of faith and religion.

But we are expected to do a bit of fishing.