Thursday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 5, 2024

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.

St. Luke’s account of the call of Simon, the son of John, the brother of Andrew, seems to contradict the accounts provided by Saints Matthew and Mark, and perhaps even of St. John, if we consider the Lord’s initial meeting with him as a “call” to follow him. We should understand, however, that the Lord called Simon and Andrew and the others more than once before he made the definitive call.  Thus, the call described by Matthew and Mark is one of the earlier calls, while the one described in today’s Gospel Reading by St. Luke is the definitive call, as marked by the miracle of the abundant catch of fish.  Why do Matthew and Mark not include this event along with the one they do report?  They were emphasizing that the Apostles left everything to follow Jesus, which all of us need to do.  Luke, on the other hand, wanted to emphasize that Jesus calls not saints but sinners to follow him, and that repentance from sin is key to salvation.  Also, by spotlighting Simon’s confession of sin, Luke is able to show how even the Peter who is renowned in his day for his rugged perseverance in faith and his miracles began in the same way as any other believer in Jesus Christ: as a lowly, though repentant, sinner.

Luke’s description of the call of the first Apostles brims over with detail.  He calls the body of water more commonly known as the Sea of Galilee “the Lake of Gennesaret”, its more ancient name and also the name by which the Gentiles knew it.  He tells of exactly two boats and gives their position, “alongside the lake”.  He tells what the fishermen were doing and where they were doing it: they were washing their nets on the shore, for they had disembarked.  Luke specifically identifies the boat into which Jesus climbed as “the one belonging to Simon”.  Luke then tells us that Jesus had Simon pull out “a short distance from the shore”, meaning that Simon had to have help from Andrew to push off from the shore.  Jesus is asking for no small favor from these weary fishermen.  Then the Lord spoke to the early morning crowd for some time.  Afterwards, he tried the patience of Simon a further time: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  From Luke’s description, the brothers had been washing their nets.  They were probably ready to head for home when Jesus got them to push off from the shore, and now, if they followed his direction, they would lower their nets only to have to pull them in again, empty, and then they would have to wash them all over again.  And that they would be empty there could be no doubt, for fish were caught near the coast and at night, not in “deep water” with the sun rising.  Simon objects, but then relents.  This tells us everything we really need to know about his character.  He’s a solidly practical man, but one willing to do the impractical, the seeming-impossible, for the one he loves and believes in: “But at your command I will lower the nets.”

A great haul of fish results immediately.  After a long night of no success, suddenly, without any warning, so many fish filled their nets that Simon and Andrew could not pull them up or even drag them in the water to the shore.  “They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them.”  We learn here that Simon and Andrew were partners with the other ship, which Luke will tell us belonged to James and John.  But even with their help, both boats were “in danger of sinking”.  We can imagine the fishermen struggling with the weighty overladen nets as the dawn begins to break, and fighting to get to shore before their boats were completely flooded.  

“Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus.”  Alongside the shore, both boats creaking with their loads of fish, it became very quiet.  Simon looked at the haul, then at the sky, then at the sea.  And then at Jesus.  And he knew.  In awe and in shame he said quietly, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  In Luke’s Greek text we see Simon first calling Jesus “teacher”: “Teacher [not “master”], we have worked hard all night.”  But now he calls him “Lord”.  Something has changed deep inside Simon, and this change will be acknowledged by the Lord when it leads to Simon declaring him to be the Son of God and the Lord changes his name to “Peter”, “the rock”.

“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  This early morning would come back to him time and again throughout his life after Pentecost as he preached to large crowds and baptized them.  And he would wonder how the Lord chose him, a sinful man, to do this work.