Another day in the life of Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry. Jesus is preaching to a large crowd at the beach on the lake. When he finishes preaching, he tells Peter and his fellows to:
Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.
Peter and his associates are professional fishermen. They know how, when, and where to fish. Fishing is their way of life. They know all the secrets of the fisherman’s trade. They have been doing this all their lives. Peter replies to Jesus:
Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.
So, we see that Peter’s efforts that day to obtain life, prosperity, and happiness turned up nothing. There is a rebuke in his reply because Peter tried everything and knows all about fishing. But there is also a willingness to do what Jesus says – probably out of respect for this new, impressive preacher or maybe just because of the crowd. Peter does what Jesus requests but probably thinking nothing will come of it. The result was an unexpected overabundance of life, prosperity, and happiness. Where there had been nothing from their own expertise and efforts, they found more fish (life) than ever imaginable.
Peter, James, and John were filled with astonishment and wonder. This event was beyond their skill. It was possible because, first of all, Peter had an attitude of listening to the Word of God. He listened and secondly, he acted. At first maybe with not too much faith or confidence – but he did act and obey. Peter along with James and John discovered a new vocation.
Here we see the importance of the Word of God. To be truly Christian, we must listen to the Word of God and act. Act on what we read in the Bible, receive from our Catholic tradition, what we hear and feel in our prayer life, and what we see in our lives and the life of our community. That changes our lives by going out into the deep waters – conquer our fears, abandon our solely human securities, stop limiting ourselves, our families, and communities with our limited experience and reason; start new projects in new places, a new you, a new family, a new community. Jesus is constantly calling us as a faith community to go out into new places to be new signs of life and resurrection.
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Image: “Group Bible Study Friends, Haven’t You Any Fish?” by groupbiblestudy.com/post: public domain.