Put out into deep water and lower your nets
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.
Put out into deep water and lower your nets
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 10, 2019
Luke 5:1-11
What Luke means when he says something of “Peter” he is saying of the Church. Consequently, there is no sitting back and listening to this Gospel as though it was about someone else at some other time. It’s about us: our call, our response, and our mission. What we come to understand from the Word we share is what kind of people are called by God to complete the work of Jesus and in the sharing of tradition reveal the saving plan of God. What we also come to understand from the Word we share is that the call itself comes in the normal circumstances of everyday life. Peter was fishing, doing the ordinary thing he did every day. What is out of the ordinary is what he experienced on that ordinary day. Luke proposes that we might pay attention. Like Peter, some of us have been in the boat a long time, and we get tired. Yet we have inherited a tradition that must be handed on if we are to live. It is a tradition filled with promise and hope. It is a tradition of Justice and of Peace. It is a tradition of Forgiveness, tolerance, kindness and mercy. If you listen very carefully, you will still hear the question: “Who will I send?” If you look very carefully, you will perceive who is in this boat with us, and what he asks of us. “And Jesus said to them: “Do not be afraid……..and they left everything and followed him.”
Fr. Tom Boyer