2/10 - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parish Family,

“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
People in business know that you have to spend money to make money. If you don’t take risks, you don’t succeed. If you play it too safe, opportunity passes you by. This is true not only in business but in life itself and in our dealings with God. In today’s gospel reading, when Jesus tells them to cast the nets, Peter thinks to himself, “This Jesus is a good carpenter and a great preacher, but he doesn’t know fishing. We found out last night that this is the wrong place at the wrong time. The nets are big and heavy, and the men are tired.” The down to earth realist in Peter says: “Forget it.” But the other side of Peter – the dreamer, the adventurer – says “Why not? You never can tell what may happen.” So Peter and his men take a chance, and they strike it rich.

Jesus worked a miracle that day because Peter let him. Peter trusted Jesus and took a chance, a leap of faith. If Peter hadn’t opened himself up to a new experience, nothing would have happened. The spirit of trust and adventure made all the difference. It was always this way with Jesus. Over and over again in the gospels, when the blind and the lame and the sick were cured, he told them their faith had made them whole. When people closed themselves off through skepticism or fear, he could not do anything for them. This sort of thing still goes on today. Many lovers play it safe; they’re afraid to pledge themselves in marriage. Others believe in each other enough to plunge into the deep – for richer or poorer, for better or worse, ‘til death do them part – and they are not alone, for God is with them.

When the Galilean fishermen finished scrambling and emptied the nets on shore, it dawned on them that they were in the presence of a mysterious, awesome power, and they were afraid. Peter cries out, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” He sounds like Isaiah in the first reading: “Woe is me!...I am a man of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” this is the way people sometimes feel about God. They are so aware of their shortcomings, they can’t imagine God wanting to have anything to do with them. To Peter, and to everyone who has ever felt this way, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.” The catch of fish is nothing compared to what you will do later.

So it’s all about trusting and taking risks, a leap of faith. Anyone who seriously tries to follow Jesus Christ knows that it isn’t easy. Most people think it costs too much. Peter and his men know better, and so do we. As St. Paul tells us, this is what we preach, and this is what we believe.
How may God be calling me to take a leap of faith?

Deacon Rob Pang