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The central theme of today’s readings is divine call and human response. Today’s readings teach us that Christian spirituality is discipleship, which means a positive response to God’s call. It has three steps: 1) The revelation: The miraculous, catch of fish described in today’s gospel, was a revelation of Jesus’ identity as the one sent from God. 2) The recognition and confession of one’s unworthiness and inadequacy: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” 3) The word of reassurance from Jesus and a call to share in his life-giving mission. Today’s readings are “epiphany-call stories” which tell us that God has His own criteria for selecting people to be prophets and ministers. Presenting the special calls or vocations, of Isaiah, Paul and Peter as life-changing events, the readings challenge us to examine our own personal calls to conversion and discipleship. When faced with the awesome power of God, Isaiah, Paul, and Peter are all struck dumb by their own unworthiness.
Peter in today’s gospel and Isaiah in the first reading express their unworthiness to be in the presence of God’s great holiness; then, Peter and Isaiah both immediately receive their divine calls. Today’s second reading describes the call of another great apostle, Paul, who judges himself to be unworthy of the name or the call as he was a former persecutor of the Christians. It was by giving these three men a strong conviction of their unworthiness and of their need of total dependence on His grace that God prepared them for their missions. The calls of these various ministers of God are set before us so that we can reassess our own call from God and our response. The Second Vatican Council teaches that we are all called to ministry by virtue of our baptism into Jesus Christ.
The story of the miraculous catch of fish described in today’s gospel is similar to the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus recounted in John 21: 4-14. In both accounts, the apostles at first fail to recognize who Jesus is, then receive a revelation of his true identity. This prompts a full confession of faith from Simon Peter to which Jesus responds by commissioning him as the representative of the disciples. In this sense, both narratives are Epiphanies in which Jesus reveals himself to the world as the messiah —for he does what only God can do. The point of this story lies, not in the miraculous catch, but in the confession of Peter and his commissioning by Jesus.
Peter’s declaration of trust, “Nevertheless Lord, if You wish it, I will lower the nets” was what made the miracle that followed possible. We may assume that Jesus smiled a little, indicating that he understood Peter’s point and still wanted the fisherman to take the boat out into deeper water. So Peter obeyed. This time, however, instead of pulling up an empty net, Peter and Andrew found the net was filled to bursting point, and they had to ask the help of their partners, Zebedee’s sons James and John, to help them bring in the catch. Simon Peter understood the message very quickly. Confronted by the size of the catch, he recognized the presence of God before him and became convinced of his own pride and self-centeredness, his sinfulness, that is. We find the same response in all the
three readings today. Isaiah, seeing the glory of God in his vision, says, “What a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips... and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of hosts.” Paul, not particularly known for his modesty, says, “I am the least of the apostles... I hardly deserve the name apostle.” Peter begs Jesus to go away. His simple confession —“Leave me Lord. I am a sinful man.”— marks a turning point in his life, and becomes the model for our response to Jesus. Thus Peter became the first person in the Gospel to acknowledge his sinfulness. He is also the first apostle to be called by Jesus. Today’s Gospel concludes with an inspiring image of commitment: “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:11).
God’s Blessings Always, Fr. Chris Nowak
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