Word to the Wise
Thursday, September 4, 2008 - Thursday in the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Corinthians 3:18-23 and Luke 5:1-11]]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 astonishment of Peter and his fishing buddies leads Peter to react as many of us would in the face of God's power! Recall Isaiah's reaction at his own call, "Woe is me! For I am a sinful man and my eyes have beheld Yahweh Sabaoth!" Jesus brushes this aside and calms Peter's fears with the words, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." It took a shrugging "What have we got to lose?" response to Jesus' initial suggestion to produce the great catch of fish! Subsequent experience still showed that they could be pretty doubtful about Jesus' power. It takes optimism to be a fisherman. Not every trip is going to produce a great catch. The Lord never promised that kind of result for every effort! The Lord DOES promise that there will be a catch, however, if we follow him. I remember well my father's regular weekend fishing efforts. Lack of good results one weekend did not discourage him from going the next weekend and the weekend after that....and so on! One thing is for sure. The fish don't generally do the work for us by just jumping in the boat. We have to cast a line or net and have faith! And even if we've been fishing a long time, we may get better advice about the job from a carpenter standing on the shore! AMEN