While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening
to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply,
“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
Into The Deep
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 is 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.
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.
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, to taste His Word on our tongue.
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.
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).
Peter blurts out that he is a sinful man. Regardless of any sinful decisions on his part, Peter, like all of us, is wounded by original sin. This is a mystery not so much to understand but to be aware of and to address. And we can address it by allowing ourselves to be caught up in the saving love of Jesus.
“We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with human nature, ‘by propagation, not by imitation’ and that it is . . . ‘proper to each’” (Paul VI, CPG§ 16). (CCC 419)
Today’s fishers of men are our loyal corps of priests. United with his bishop, a priest leaves much to follow Jesus in a unique way. Bishops and priests together form a team of ordained coworkers, partners in ministry who bring us God’s astonishing goodness in many ways.
“Priests are united with the bishops in sacerdotal dignity and at the same time depend on them in the exercise of their pastoral functions; they are called to be the bishops’ prudent co-workers. They form around their bishop the presbyterium which bears responsibility with him for the particular Church. They receive from the bishop the charge of a parish community or a determinate ecclesial office.” – (CCC 1595)
What might Jesus be saying to me by the words “Put out into deep water”?
Like Peter’s partners, how might I be of help to my coworkers?
Image: https://garystockbridge617.getarchive.net/amp/media/duccio-di-buoninsegna-appearance-on-lake-tiberias-adjusted-ad7498
