REFLECTION

Gospel

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.

They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

Luke 5:1-11

Reflection

Last Sunday's liturgy’s Gospel presented Jesus’ changing water into wine, miraculous and a sign of how Jesus would do even more amazing things. Today’s Gospel is such a more amazing transformation. Jesus is changing a man of the water into a man of the earth; a fisher-man into a fisher for humanity. As with many of the persons God has called and Jesus has invited, Peter has a comfortable excuse for his returning to the waters.

Peter must have been a good catcher of fish. He had partners, a boat and nets. For Luke’s literary purpose, Peter and pals came up fishless which forms the occasion for a fishful netting which certainly did catch Peter’s attention. Peter confronts an unusual power and this unfamiliarity frightens him so Jesus invites him not to be afraid. Jesus does not say anything more, but Peter is moved to say something truer than he really knows.

Luke has two other passages where persons find their prayer-place at the feet of Jesus. There is the man who tortured himself in the tombs in chapter eight and Mary, the sister of Martha, sits there relaxing and reflecting on the words of Jesus in Luke’s tenth chapter. So Peter asks Jesus to depart, because he, himself, knows he is a sinful man, besides not being a very good fisherman that day. Jesus’ silence calms Peter and is the beginning of the water-to-land transformation.

We, as with Peter, find comfort in the familiar. The change in Peter is not that he will no longer be a “sinful man”, but by his leaving all to follow Jesus, he will more discover the deep truth of his being a man of the earth and yet not defined nor confined by this awareness. He will be positioned to be more available to his being loved. As with the demoniac and Martha’s sister, Peter will allow the relationship with Jesus to free himself for a more compassionate and generous relationship with himself.

Guilt, about being sinful, can be a comfortable excuse for us to avoid intimacy which Jesus offers. We can say to ourselves, “The more distant I stay away from Him, the less I will feel guilty and so freer.” That is a good one and I have experienced it myself, but it doesn’t work so peacefully. Self-pride mingles with the sense of guilt. “I do not want to raise expectations and hopes for myself and then I can merely stay inside the waters of isolation won’t reveal my truth of myself to myself nor anyone else.”

Peter was in a shallow spot near the shore. Jesus finds him there and invites him to go deeper and there’s the fear and yet the fullness. Firstly, Jesus encounters Peter and thereby Peter encounters Peter more deeply, who then encounters Jesus, who then invites Peter to begin the process of his being transformed from the water to his attracting others, us, to walk with Jesus in His mission of transforming the earth. “Be not afraid of Him nor yourself.”