Fishing All Night and Catching Nothing
Pastor's Column
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 7, 2016
"Simon said in reply, 'Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.'"
from Luke 5:1-11
It is significant that Peter and his fishing partners had caught absolutely nothing on the night before Jesus called them. Peter and Andrew had met Jesus before this, near the Dead Sea when John the Baptist was preaching. So Jesus' voice was a familiar one. While fishing by day, often a spotter would stand on the shore to watch for and advise the boats. Jesus called out his advice for them to try one more time.
The world that we live in looks for winners, those who can get results. Not so with Jesus. Jesus pays attention to the effort that went into what we did, not just the "results". Jesus knows what we have been through; he knows if we have really tried and when we have not because he made us.
Simon and his fishing partners must have felt like failures that morning, having fished all night and caught nothing. How often we, too, can feel this way if we judge our results and others by worldly standards and not God's. Jesus called out to Peter that day at precisely the moment when Peter was most vulnerable, most down, least successful. Peter was especially open to the words of Christ at that moment.
Here we can notice a pattern: as Jesus called Peter, so too does he call us. When does he call? Jesus could have chosen to call Peter after a successful fishing expedition; but no, Peter will be most open to the Lord precisely when he is most vulnerable. In the same way, when we are most in need, most sinful, most hurting, most vulnerable, here we will often find Jesus calling out to us as well.
Perhaps Jesus will call us to spend some extra time with him in the adoration chapel, to attend Mass and really pray the Mass, to read our Scripture at home. Jesus may come to us in the form of a person in need. Jesus will be hiding there, waiting for us to find him, calling out to us for a greater life of service.
Peter, having had a genuine encounter with the Lord's power after obeying his voice and filling his boat with fish, is utterly humbled by our Lord's attention: "Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful man!" says Peter. But, it is precisely this, in Peter's weaknesses that Jesus will use to show forth his power, and it will be the same way with us, if we will only let Jesus act through us.
Father Gary
Reflections from Scott Hahn
Readings:
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 138:1-5, 7-8
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
Simon Peter, the fisherman, is the first to be called personally by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel.
His calling resembles Isaiah’s commissioning in the First Reading: Confronted with the holiness of the Lord, both Peter and Isaiah are overwhelmed by a sense of their sinfulness and inadequacy. Yet each experiences the Lord’s forgiveness and is sent to preach the good news of His mercy to the world.
No one is “fit to be called an apostle,” Paul recognizes in today’s Epistle. But by “the grace of God,” even a persecutor of the Church—as Paul once was—can be lifted up for the Lord’s service.
In the Old Testament, humanity was unfit for the divine—no man could stand in God’s presence and live (see Exodus 33:20). But in Jesus, we’re made able to speak with Him face-to-face, taste His Word on our tongue.
Today’s scene from Isaiah is recalled in every Mass. Before reading the Gospel, the priest silently asks God to cleanse his lips that he might worthily proclaim His Word.
God’s Word comes to us as it came to Peter, Paul, Isaiah, and today’s Psalmist— as a personal call to leave everything and follow Him, to surrender our weaknesses in order to be filled with His strength.
Simon put out into deep waters even though, as a professional fisherman, he knew it would be foolhardy to expect to catch anything. In humbling himself before the Lord’s command, he was exalted—his nets filled to overflowing; later, as Paul tells us, he will become the first to see the risen Lord.
Jesus has made us worthy to receive Him in the company of angels in God’s holy Temple. On our knees like Peter, with the humility of David in today’s Psalm, we thank Him with all our hearts and join in the unending hymn that Isaiah heard around God’s altar: “Holy, holy, holy....” (see also Revelation 4:8).