In the Gospel reading today from Luke 5, Jesus sees Simon Peter and his fishing buddies cleaning their nets after a hard night of fishing. Not catching, mind you. Fishing. Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and begins teaching the people from the boat. After He is done, He tells Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon reminds Jesus that they had just been out all night and had caught nothing. But Simon follows Jesus’ command. They caught so many fish that their nets were tearing. They were all astonished. And Jesus says to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
Recall that Simon and his buddies were professional fisherman. They probably thought that Jesus was crazy. Here is this young rabbi, and a carpenter by trade. What did he know about fishing? Yet Simon was faithful. Do you see any similarities here with your life? I think maybe the best and most common example is our sexuality. We think to ourselves What could the Church possibly know about sexuality? After all, they’re a bunch of celibate men? Yet we must remember that the Church gives us the message of Christ. Rather than disregard the Church’s teachings on sexuality (contraception, marriage, etc.), or anything else, for that matter, can we consider that She is speaking for Christ?
Too often we want to dip our toes into the practice of our faith. But that shows great immaturity. Let me put it this way: How do you learn to swim? You start by dipping your toes, then getting in up to your knees, then your waist, then your neck. You can do that, but you’re not really swimming. It’s not until you get into deep water that you really learn to swim. Let me encourage you to go deeper today. Put out into deep water and watch what kind of adventure God has for you!
Father, help us to overcome our fears of trusting you, and put out into deep water. We trust that you will never let us sink. Amen.
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Thanks Gus. Always a wonderful insight/message, and, like today, often the return of a fond memory.
I “learned” how to swim in a different way. My father and uncle had me in water over my head and had me “swim” from one to the other. They promised that they would never let me drown and that one of them would always be there to grab me.
Now I just need to remember that my Heavenly Father is ALWAYS there to save me and that faith replaces fear!
I love listening to your show every morning. I only get to listen to about 20 minutes of it, but it’s enough to get my day started! Thank you for starting the show off with the readings – that’s what I look forward to the most. We do need to stand up as Catholics and Christians against the evil in this world. I’m wondering if you would spend some time talking about the “end times” that most Protestant churches are driving into everyone’s ears who are within earshot. It angers me because although there are “clues” in the Bible, it is NOT up to US to decide and interpret what we think qualifies as a “sign” from the Bible. My mother-in-law is a deep, deep, deep fundamentalist Baptist and I swear I fight hard to love her sometimes. Also – is there a way to go back and listen to your show? You may have mentioned how to do that, but I don’t recall. Thank you!