Our gospel reading this week is a familiar one: Jesus tells fishermen to cast their nets again, and they miraculously catch more fish than their boats could hold! Jesus tells them to follow him and become "fishers of people." This story is often interpreted to mean that Jesus' disciples have the role of bringing people to Jesus or to "the faith." While sharing our faith with the people around us is important - I don't think that the idea of trapping people and dragging them into our faith sounds like something Jesus would endorse. In fact, it sounds a lot like the forced conversions that were common during the colonization of many lands across the world - an evil twisting of our religion to empower bloodthirsty empires.

February can be a brutal month. Will winter ever end? We look for any sign of spring that we can. And in these dark , chaotic times, any sign of hope, any sign of new life. No wonder Groundhog Day captures our imagination.