Lord's Day Reflection: There is always hope for each of us

By Edmund Power, OSB

Let us consider Peter, this honest, generous, impulsive, and insecure man, who could never be accused of arrogance or vainglory. Today we meet him for the second time in Luke’s Gospel. The first was when Jesus healed his mother-in-law, but on that occasion no words were exchanged between them.

We could take today’s vivid text at a literal level, imagining the noise of the crowd, the slapping of waves against the side of the boats, bystanders getting on with their work and only half paying attention. Or, following Luke’s own lead, read it as telling a deeper story. Jesus Himself invites us to recognize in the catching of fish a prophetic sign: Henceforth you will be catching men. The trade of the fisherman becomes a symbol of the future mission of the apostles.

In what other ways might this gospel offer us a deeper insight? Could we also see in it a kind of itinerary of the spiritual life in which Peter stands for each one of us? We start on the margins, washing nets rather than giving our full attention. Maybe we have already been touched by the healing of the mother-in-law. It is, however, Jesus who now takes an explicit initiative, recruiting Peter’s assistance then telling him to put out into the deep. This forceful invitation stands in stark contrast with Peter’s professional knowledge of how the fish are moving. If the nets might symbolize the capacity of the mind to contain, and therefore comprehend, the mystery, the human limitations are made clear in the comment that their nets were breaking. In part, Peter has to let go of his human reason so as to permit and witness the miraculous draft of fishes. That prophetic sign will cast him to his knees in unworthiness. In today’s first reading, in a very different context and time, Isaiah experiences a similar thing.

So in fear and adoration (he fell down at Jesus' knees), in humility and in awareness of his sinfulness, linked perhaps to the difficulty of a fisherman to observe perfectly the injunctions of the law, he tries to escape. But God calls whom He will, irrespective of human preparation or worthiness. By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain, Paul tells us in today’s second reading.

Peter and Paul became the patrons of Rome and of the universal Church. They were called by grace and rendered worthy. They stand as a sign that there is always hope for each of us. The Lord calls us; He guides us, often imperceptibly, in the way of sanctification; He invites us to participate in His service through the quality of lives touched by grace.