Thursday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 7, 2023

Luke 5, 1-11

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.

The events presented in today’s Gospel Reading are found only in the Gospel according to St. Luke.  Both St. Matthew and St. Mark, eager to quickly tell of the call of the first Apostles and then move on to the Lord’s teachings and his more spectacular miracles, summarize.  St. Luke, however, writing for the Gentiles, wants to point out to them the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness, which form the basis for his miracles.  In this account, we see how a miracle leads to an act of mercy that changes a life — and history.

“While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.” The Greeks would have known the Sea of Galilee as the Lake of Gennesaret, from the oldest name for this body of water.  Numbers 34, 11.  “Galilee” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “the district”, that is, the district of the Gentiles, for that is what northern Israel became after it was conquered by the Assyrians in 721 B.C.  It only became Jewish again in the hundred and fifty years before Jesus was born.  The Sea was later called the Sea of Tiberias after the city built on its coast by Herod Antipas and named for the reigning Roman emperor.  St. Luke is telling us that Jesus was outside a town, almost certainly that of Capernaum.  He is standing in the wild grass.  “He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.”  This tells us that it was the early morning, not long after daybreak.  The time may have been days, weeks, or months after Jesus had entered Capernaum and cured many people after sunset.  The mood of the fishermen who are washing their nets is dismal for they have nothing to show for a long night’s work.

“Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.”  Simon, soaked to the skin and exhausted, does as Jesus says.  This is not some small act of obedience.  All Simon wanted at that time was to finish washing the nets, dry off, and go to bed.  Putting out again took work, too.  “Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.”  He sat down, taking the posture of the teacher while his students stood attentively, and taught the crowds of the love of God, the need to repent, and about heaven.  “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  Jesus asks an extraordinary thing of an already exhausted man.  In so doing, he acts like a carpenter from landlocked Nazareth who does not know anything about fishing.  Again, Simon shows remarkable patience in his obedience: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”  He and his brother Andrew load the nets into the boat and put out into the lake.  It would have taken them perhaps thirty minutes and to get out to the middle of the lake.  We might wonder if, while engaged in this, Simon realized that this was a turning point of some kind.  He was taking orders that seemed unreasonable and even risked the mockery of his neighbors for the apparently foolhardy effort he was making.  He would have done this for no one else.  What did it mean for him?  What was happening to him?

“When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.”  Simon could not have reasonably expected anything to happen after he lowered the nets, and the Greek indicates that it happened as soon as the nets hit the water.  Simon was faced now with an emergency: his nets were tearing apart so that he stood to lose the nets and the haul of fish.  “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.”  James and John had watched the spectacle from the coast along with their father Zebedee and the others.  At first it would have been difficult to tell what was going on, but when they saw the figure of Simon waving to them, silhouetted by the light of the rising sun, they hurried out.

Rowing as hard as they could, they came alongside Simon’s boat and assisted with the nets, pulling as much of the catch into their boat as they could reach.  There was excitement and yelling and struggling with the nets and keeping the boats in position so that they did not crash into each other and yet remained near enough to work together.  And in the midst of all this, Simon caught sight of Jesus, calmly observing the scene.  He stopped what he was doing and “he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.’ ”  He had seen the Lord perform miracles before.  This one was different.  This one was for him, and he knew, deep in his heart, that he was undeserving of it.  He knew who Jesus was, better than the demons who had cried out, “You are the Son of God!”  And he knew himself and he knew that Jesus had done this for him.  “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  Do not be afraid that you are not good enough.  Do not be afraid of your sinful past.  Do not be afraid of temptations.  You will catch men.  Simon could not have understood much or anything of what this meant, but it did not stop him from giving up everything, then and there, to follow Jesus: “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.”

If we examine our lives and consider the immense love of the Lord Jesus, perhaps gazing at a crucifix as we do so, we will feel the urge to say with Simon Peter: Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful human being.  But let us not let our past prevent us from following him and “catching men” for him through our prayers, words, and good deeds.  He is the Fisherman and we are the nets.