Feb 9 Sun
What is the result of encountering Jesus?
Jesus got into the boat of Simon; He asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon replied, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command, I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.
Then, Simon was told to go from his normal life of catching fish to his supernatural calling of fishing men.
Jesus violated a boundary, getting into Peter’s boat, and then He requested Peter, to pull out. Peter complied.
We do not know for sure if this was Peter’s first encounter with him, but by the end, he regarded the Lord as somebody you addressed as “Master,” one who makes commands.
Jesus rewarded Peter for letting him use his boat as a pulpit. Christ demonstrated his supernatural mastery over nature by making Simon take a phenomenal catch of fish, even though Simon, a professional fisherman, thought it was pointless since they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing.
Like at the wedding feast of Cana, this was a miracle of abundance: not just some wine for the wedding feast but lots and lots of very good wine; not just a few fish but so many that two boats were filled almost to sinking for the previously unsuccessful fishermen.
Simon was cut to the heart when he met the incarnate “Law” of God, Jesus Christ the Messiah: like the remnant of Jews who returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra, who wept when they heard the Law of God read to them; like Isaiah when he experienced the holiness of God in his vision; like Paul on the road to Damascus.
Peter didn’t have a chance. He was caught by Jesus more surely than any fish in a net or with a hook in his mouth.
This call is to all of us, too: to put out into deep water and do apostolate.
When we do apostolate, don’t we have to break a boundary, to begin to talk about something “forbidden” in our society? We are, somehow, hopping into somebody’s boat if we bring up the topic of faith.
But we see that our Lord didn’t just say things, however good: He gave good gifts –food, drink, understanding, friendship, sight, healing, renewal, and even life.
Our own words, too, must be preceded, accompanied, and followed by a good gift: offering them an encounter with Christ. This is normally accomplished by allowing ourselves to be transformed by Christ, becoming the lips of Christ.
The Christians of the first centuries transformed the brutal and hopeless Roman Empire with their charity, chastity, and cheerfulness. Those are gifts that Christ gives also to us, today. The hands of God have not been shortened.
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