In this week’s gospel, Jesus, the son of a carpenter, is telling a fisherman how to fish! Jesus is telling Peter (who had not slept all night, who spent the entire night sorting through empty nets not catching a single fish, who then had to beach the boat, load what seemed to be a thousand pounds of wet nets on to the shore to clean them with his own hands and then dry them) to throw out a net again, and in the daytime! Peter could very well have said, “Stick to building furniture, Jesus, and leave the fishing to us experts!”
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Jesus, I look to you for spiritual matters, but the practical stuff of my life, the stuff I know about, stay out of it!” However, our finances, choices of a life partner, marriage, internet habits, entertainment preferences, studies, work, etc. are a part of our relationship with Jesus. Peter’s obedience nears the impossible. I like to obey when the circumstances are right. Actually, even then, I don’t always obey! If everything is going well, I’ll obey you Lord. If I feel encouraged and if my heart feels like praying, then I’ll pray.
One of the great qualities of fishermen is their perseverance. Do you think perhaps this is one of the reasons why seven out of the twelve disciples were fishermen? If I had fished all night and caught nothing, I would probably be selling my nets, not washing them to get ready to go out again! But true fishermen don’t quit. Blessed be those who come up empty at times in life and in ministry, but still go at it again! Peter will be learning this for the rest of his life, but his spirit is definitely downtrodden in this moment.
Jesus asked Peter to put the boat out a little way from shore and preached from there because his voice would carry across the water to the crowd. It would be the equivalent of an excellent acoustically serviceable amphitheater today. So, Jesus sits down, a typical posture of a rabbi, at the bow, with Peter and possibly two or three others, and begins teaching people.
Notice no hesitation from Peter as he oars out a short distance and drops his anchor. He is ready and willing to do whatever the Master asks from him. You want to use my boat Jesus? Here it is. You want me to push it out a little bit? There you go. Key words there: a little. Jesus turned Peter’s ordinary boat into a pulpit and used it to throw the net of the gospel over its hearers. Peter was available in the little.
Let us never let our circumstances and our experiences of the past dictate our obedience today. Lord, help me to obey you when I feel like it, and especially when I don’t. Help me to obey you when I am appreciated, and when I’m not. Help me to obey you when I am tired, and when I am full of vitality. Help me to obey you when there is money in the bank, or not. Help me to obey you whether I like my job, or not. Help me to obey you, even if my friends or my family do not. Help me to obey when people are watching, or if they are not. And even in the most impossible of situations, where I can choose to walk away from you and am always certain there is no point to keep going, teach me to stay with you and trust you, believing that greater things are still to come in my life. The Lord is calling us away from the shore of contentment where there are no risks and no rewards. He is calling us to deeper waters. When he calls us, let us be quick to our oars, swift to our boats and fast with our nets.
With this gospel, Peter’s career as a fisherman is now over. He will leave behind the fishing business and the steady income assets and a future to follow Christ. Here we have a call from Jesus today; the call is for a deeper surrender. The Lord wants to take each of us to the end of ourselves and our own strength and bring us into the depths of his dominion and net-breaking power! Let’s stop hugging the shore and doing what is easy and comfortable. Let’s be quick to serve and obey Jesus, knowing He is laboring with us on the boat! Like Peter, let us hear when Jesus speaks, labor when He commands, believe what He promises and follow where He calls. He is looking for those who will be available in the little, obedient in the impossible and when the miraculous comes, those who will fall on their faces in humility and unworthiness before a Savior who will then take them into places they never even dreamed of!
This weekend we welcome Professor Ahmad Sadri, Ph.D. of Lake Forest College to our 9:00 and 11:00am Masses where he will give a reflection on his personal immigration story. Professor Sadri presented at Holy Family last fall and many reviewers asked us to have him return. Please give him a warm welcome as he joins us again to share his story.
Fr. Rich Jakubik