"Put out into Deep Water...for a Catch"

In today’s Gospel, Luke 5: 1-11, Jesus is teaching a crowd of people. The crowd is pressing upon him,listening, Luke tells us, “to the word of God”—truly to the Word of God made flesh.  Jesus, feeling about to be crushed, spots Simon’s fishing boat a ways off shore—the fishermen were washing their nets—so Jesus walks out to the boat, gets into it and pushes out a bit further to secure some space for Himself. When he finishes teaching, he says to Simon: “Put out into the deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.”  Simon does so, even though he and his partners have been fishing all night, are worn out, so to speak, know that there are no fish in the area yet does what Jesus asks of them: Pays out into the deep and, to their amazement, have an overwhelming catch. “Who is this man,” Peter and his partners must have wondered.   I can imagine Peter saying to himself: “We’ve fished all night and caught nothing.He says: ‘Go out into the deep and you will find fish.'”  Peter may have said to himself initially:  “What? He’s not a professional fisherman! I am.”  Then says: “Okay, Lord, We will go out into the deep, as you have asked of us.”

Following this large catch of fish, Peter falls on his knees and says to Jesus: “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.” That does not faze Jesus. He  says to Simon and his partners, James and John: “’Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.’  Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.”

There are several lessons in this reading: 1) the importance of setting boundaries, creating space for

ourselves, as Jesus did. Do you and I recognize when people are “crushing” us and we need to create

space for ourselves? 2) that Jesus is our Master, knowing what we need to do to succeed at what we are doing? Do we listen to His voice, His instructions, as Simon did, even when they make no sense to us? 3) being honest about our situation, especially, naming our failures, identifying out frustrations and sharing those with the Lord, as Simon had done when he told Jesus that they “have worked hard all night long and caught nothing,”  4) the importance of falling on our knees before Jesus and recognizing our sinfulness. Do we recognizing our sinfulness and the absolute holiness of our God? 5) Hearing Jesus say to us: ‘Be not afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching'" for God's Kingdom. For what am I "fishing"and 6) leaving everything to follow Jesus’  instructions when the things we need to leave behind would block us from knowing Jesus, doing the will of our God through Christ Jesus and bringing other people into God’s Kingdom of love and mercy, generous service and increased love,  repentance and forgiveness?