This week in the Gospel we have been looking at the beginning moments of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. Actually, this is the beginning of our faith community, the Church. Today we see that Peter and the other fishermen had spent the whole night at work fishing with no results. They were on the shore cleaning their nets when Jesus appears and climbs into Peter’s boat to preach to a crowd. After preaching for a while, Jesus says to Peter “Put out into deep water” to fish. That is quite a thing to say to a bunch of professional fishermen who had just worked all night to no avail. It was probably mid-morning at least – not the time or place to be fishing!
It is amazing to see how a group of professional fishermen respond to an itinerant preacher who is telling them how to fish. They object and tell him that he doesn’t know what he is talking about – of course they say it in a polite way. In the end they do what he requests – probably thinking they know that nothing will come of it. All their physical effort, knowledge, planning, and teamwork produced nothing. Everything they had produced was a failure. We have this same attitude about managing our own lives. We try to do everything our own way without consulting with the Word of God. We end up with a small, limited life – usually we are unhappy without even knowing why.
When they begrudgingly accept Jesus’ indications, they encounter a huge number of fish beyond what they could have ever captured themselves. New life.
This new, abundant life is only possible when we unite our lives to the life of Jesus. God knows what we need and when we need it and how to get it. Jesus invites us to live trusting in his Word.
Image: https://www.eldiario.com.co/seccion-d/lectura-del-santo-evangelio-segun-san-lucas-5-1-11/