The theme of our Scriptures today centers on God’s
call. I’d like to begin by
starting with the fishermen, as this is one of my favorite pastimes.
Now
I will admit—there have been times, believe it or not, that I haven’t caught
anything. I’ve gotten skunked over
a day or even a weekend. While it’s
a bummer, I fish for recreational purposes and can still have a great time with
friends or family.
Peter,
James and John found themselves skunked after a night of long fishing. Yet they didn’t just lose bragging
rights from coming home empty—they fished for a living. Thus they lost revenue and food.
Then
Jesus—a carpenter—whom the apostles had not met yet (as they weren’t apostles
yet!) tells them how to fish.
Imagine someone coming to you in your profession and telling you what to
do. What would your response be?
Peter’s
response to this mysterious man was one of deep faith. He told Jesus, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.” And how did God respond to Peter’s faith? With an abundance. They had the catch of their lives. How often I wish Jesus would show up
while I am fishing on a slow day.
Praise
God men and women throughout the ages, while recognizing their own
inadequacies, have responded with such faith. Isaiah was “a man of
unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips”. Yet he became a great prophet. Paul, who reports today that he was “abnormally born” and “least of the apostles” became the
greatest evangelizer we have ever seen.
Peter’s first response to the great catch of fish is, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” And he became our first pope.
God
does not call the saint. He does
not call the perfect. He does not
call people who have it all together.
He calls the sinner, the simple and the ordinary men and women to do His
extraordinary work. One of my
favorite quotations captures this reality. John Chrysostom once stated, “For the good deeds which tax-collectors and fishermen were able to
accomplish by God’s grace, the philosophers, the rulers, the countless
multitudes cannot even imagine.”
As
we approach the season of Lent, how are you answering God’s call for your
life? How are you responding to
Jesus’ summons, “Come, follow me.” Would that we had the courage and faith
of Isaiah, Paul and Peter to leave our nets and follow Jesus saying, “Here I am, send me.”
Then
the philosophers, the rulers and the countless multitudes could not begin to
imagine what God can do with us.
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