Peter is not the only worker who has “worked hard all night.” Many of us can identify with an “all-night-labor”; something we have worked hard at all day and that still keeps us up at night. We can hear in Peter’s our own voice of fatigue, frustration and failure. There are times in our lives when we can say what Peter expresses in today’s gospel, “we have caught nothing….”
We have: struggled to keep a relationship together, only to have it crumble; tried to support our families during these times of cutbacks; taught our children the faith, only to have them give it up when they left the house; come towards the end of our hard-working lives to find ourselves limited by physical or financial constraints, etc. With Peter and his partners, we have a lot on our minds and have much to preoccupy us.
Peter hasn’t had the time or leisure to listen to Jesus preach on some hillside or local synagogue. He has important things to tend to on this day; he’s got a family to feed and a business to maintain. So, since Peter couldn’t go to Jesus, Jesus goes to him. He chooses Peter’s boat as his “pulpit.” From there Jesus preaches to the crowds, whom Luke describes as “pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God….” Don’t we preachers envy that: people pressing it to hear a preaching! Jesus must have been saying something they found important and applicable to their lives. Peter couldn’t help hearing what Jesus was saying, after all, they were in the same boat. Jesus’ words were so moving that Peter was willing to act against his experience, honed by years of fishing, and to trust Jesus’ word. When he tells Peter, “Put out into the deep and lower your nets for a catch…,” Peter does it.
Here is where we are at this point of the story: we have a working person whose life is frustrating and failing; into that life and world Jesus enters with a word that draws people to himself; Peter hears that word and responds to it and he discovers that his life bears fruit — the kind a fisherman would recognize, a huge catch. This story is not ethereal or other-worldly. It’s about Jesus addressing a person in the midst of a busy day and that person responding to him. Peter goes from indirection and failure to purpose and bounty. He realizes what has happened and decides to follow the one who can catch fish for him and more–whose word bears life.
But Peter has initial hesitation. He feels unworthy in the presence of the one he has just heard speak and taught him, the experienced fishermen, how to catch fish. Jesus now has other fish to capture; beginning with Peter and his companions. He uses the same net to catch these men he used to catch the fish–his word. They may be unworthy, but if they trust, not in themselves but Jesus’ word, they will be “catching people.” So, relying not on themselves but upon the Word, they put their hesitations aside and follow Jesus.
Our lives are busy. The things that concern us and keep our minds preoccupied during the night, are not superficial matters, they are an integral part of our lives and we need to tend to them. But we can use some help to keep us focused and guide our decisions. While we know there are no easy and quick solutions to the important issues we face, still we do want to keep our heads about us; we want a sense of priorities and direction. In other words, we want to continue hearing Jesus’ invitation to follow him and we want to do that as we toil through, the sometimes, very dark periods of our lives.
Peter’s busy life turned out to be a “listening place” for him. It was while he was cleaning up after his laborious and unrewarding night’s work that he heard Jesus speak. First, he listens to Jesus, he was one among the many who were there that day. It’s the way we hear the Word of God in this community, at our liturgical celebration. I think that communal hearing set the stage for what Peter heard next — his personal call. These weekly celebrations we share with others is an important listening place for us as a church community. Together we hear Christ address us and, through his fruitful word, enable us to be his “fishing church,” reaching out, as he did, to the lost and confused, to offer them direction and a place of acceptance. Our ministry now is to respond to those who say what Peter first said to Jesus, “We have worked hard all night and have caught nothing.”
But besides hearing Jesus in a communal setting, Peter also heard Jesus speak directly to him in the midst of his busy life with an invitation to follow him. So, daily life can be our personal listening place to the Word. As the saying has it, “Listen up!” Practice attentiveness to what we experience and hear each day. For example, do we have a wise friend who speaks the truth we need to hear? Do we take the Scriptures we hear each Sunday and try to apply them to our lives? When we complete a task or chore can we pause, take a breath and ask, “What next Lord?” And listen for a response? Can we begin each day with a resolution to try to find Christ and listen to him while we work?
There is a sequence in today’s gospel. It starts with trouble and need; then words are spoken and people respond to what they hear. Their response bears fruit; then another word is spoken and a new response is made — a life-time journey begins. There is no guarantee of success for those who accepted Jesus’ invitation, at least not in the usual ways we measure it. We may not come up with a boat load of fish. Jesus doesn’t spell out exactly what the lives of the new disciples will be like. “Catching people” — hardly tells Peter and the others what that will be like. How will they do it? How many “catches” will make a success? Where will this journey they are beginning take them? How will it end up? Lots of questions I would like answered before I would sign a lifetime contract. Instead, Jesus offers Peter and us his presence on the journey. We will not be on our own, we will have one another and he will be in our midst. We have confidence that along the way he will continue to speak a word, especially at the moments when we lose confidence after another all-night of fruitless labor.
Peter sees the fish, but he sees more. Here is someone who can enter into his life and direct him to bounty, meaning, vision and hope. Here is someone who makes him aware how far he is from God and how unfulfilling life on his own can be. So, he speaks his feelings of unworthiness, not out of an exaggerated or neurotic sense of guilt, but from the experience we too would have in the presence of the Holy One.
Isaiah had an experience of the holy God that frightened him and also filled him with awe. Isaiah, like Peter kneeling before Jesus, experiences his own unworthiness and God’s compassion. Yes, he is “a man of unclean lips.” But for God that’s not an obstacle. Isaiah’s mission won’t depend on his own worthiness, but on the word of the One who is calling and sending. “Here I am,” he responds to the voice of the Lord, “send me.” That might be our prayer throughout this week. Whether we feel worthy or not, from the midst of our daily lives we pray and trust our call and say, “Here I am, send me.”
The Africans have a proverb; “It’s not too good to be near a chief.” Simon Peter may have had feelings like that; so might we. What will God ask of us once we accept the invitation to draw close? How much does God want? Still better, how much does God want to give? The answer isn’t provided yet, to Simon or us. All we have now is an encouraging word, “Don’t be afraid” and an invitation to follow and trust.