A reading from the holy gospel
according to Luke (Lk 5:1-11)
Once while Jesus was standing
beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the
word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had
gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the
one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished
speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets
for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have
caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had
done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So
they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they
came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter
saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am
a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of
fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who
were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now
on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore,
they left everything and followed him. This is the Word of the Lord.
At the beginning of Chapter 6, Prophet Isaiah reports that he saw the
Lord seated on a high and lofty throne in all his glory surrounded by Seraphim
crying to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is
filled with his glory!” At this sight he saw himself a sinner, “a man of
unclean lips”. “Woe to me”, he said, “I am doomed!” One of the Seraphs then touched
the prophet’s mouth with a live coal taken from the altar, removed his
wickedness and purged his sin. He then heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Without really understanding the
extent of the mission Isaiah answered: “Here I am. Send me!” (Is 6, 1-8).
Listen here
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At the Annunciation, Mary received a visit by Gabriel, an angel of the
Lord who, after greeting the virgin, asked her to agree to God’s plan for her
to be a mother to His Son in the mystery of the Incarnation. She was confused
and she mused about the meaning of all that the angel was telling her. The
angel explained. She would bear a son. “He will be great and will be called the
Son of the Most High”, he told her, “Do not to be afraid. This
is the work of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is impossible with God!” Did Mary
understand all of this? Probably not! But she was ready to do God’s will,
whatever that might be. “I am the servant of the Lord”, she said, “Let what you
said be done to me!” Mary was without sin, full of grace. However she lived in
a real world, a human world full of sin and grace. “Here I am”, she said, “Send
me!”
The other person is Peter. In today’s gospel we read that Peter and his
partners were washing their nets after spending the night fishing. They caught
no fish. Peter was a professional fisherman. A local carpenter made preacher,
no expert in catching fish, asked him to go into deep waters and lower his nets
for a catch. The fisherman answered by telling the preacher how they had worked
hard all night and caught nothing. He obeyed the preacher’s command and lowered
the nets and they caught a great number of fish. Peter had to call other
partners in another boat to help him. Peter then fell down at Jesus’ knees,
saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” The fisherman saw that,
after all, the carpenter was not just any other preacher. He saw the power of
this man Jesus. He saw himself a sinner. Jesus did not tell Peter that his sins
were forgiven. He told him not to be afraid, and that he would be sent on a
mission, to be a fisher of people. Did Peter understand the meaning of all
this? Did his partners understand? Perhaps not! But “when they brought their
boats to shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.”
I find it interesting that it was Jesus who entered Peter’s boat
uninvited and took command of it. He asked the tired fisherman to put out a
little way from shore in order to preach to the crowd. Then he asked him to go
into deep water and lower the nets although it was during the day, not their
time for fishing! Jesus told him he would no longer catch fish but persons.
Jesus entered Peter’s boat and this fisherman’s life was changed for ever.
Do we allow Jesus to enter our ‘boat’, our life, like Mary did, and Peter
and Isaiah?
Isaiah heard the Lord say: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” A
commentary on Isaiah asks the reader to observe the unity and the plurality of
this voice from God. “Upon what theory, but that of the doctrine of the Trinity,
can we explain so singular a change from the singular to the plural? “Whom
shall I send? Who will go for us?” Yes, it is God almighty who calls the
prophet, the virgin, the fisherman and all of us for a mission. It is God
almighty who enters the boat of the fisherman or that of the virgin and our
boat, and waits for an answer to his request to allow him to change our life
for ever. Gabriel waited for Mary’s answer and then he departed from her,
surely to tell the almighty and everybody in heaven that the Virgin accepted to
do God’s will and through her the Son will be the saviour of all mankind.
At different times and in different words God is provoking us: “Whom
shall I send? Who will go for us?”
Let us remember that God is not asking everybody to be a priest, a friar,
a nun or a religious sister. He is asking everybody and each one of us to be
His partners in the work of redemption. He wants us to be His voice and his presence
so that, by word and deeds we can be prophets like Isaiah, apostles like Peter,
and like Mary allow Jesus to be born in our midst, wherever we are.
Let us remember the apostle Paul who teaches us that “We who are
many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.
We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in
proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the
exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence;
the compassionate, in cheerfulness.” (Rm 12, 4-8)
Let us remember Christ’s call: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are
few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his
harvest” (Mt 9, 37-38). Do we remember to pray for the grace to put to good use
the call we received in our baptism? Do we only think in terms of priests and
sisters when we pray for vocations? Or are we ready to answer like Isaiah:
“Send me, Lord”, or together with Mary answer: “I am your servant, Lord, let it
be done to me according to your word”?
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