Epistle to the Galatians 4:22-27
The Gospel According to St. Luke 5:1-11
The Gospel According to St. Luke 5:1-11
Probably
everyone who has a job or is in school has felt at some point like the
disciples did when Jesus Christ found them washing their nets. They had fished all night and caught
nothing. Things hadn’t turned out as
they had hoped, and they were disappointed and frustrated to the point of
giving up. I’ve been there many times
and I bet that you have also. But then the
Lord told them to get back to work and let down their net. They did so and caught so many fish that
their net was breaking and their boats began to sink. Just imagine what a surprise that was for
them. They were all amazed and St. Peter fell down before Christ and said, “Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” But the Lord said, “Do not be
afraid. From now on you will catch
men.” Then the disciples left behind
their boats and nets and followed Christ as His disciples.
That day probably began like any
other day. The fishermen were busy with
their work and who knows whether they expected anything out of the ordinary to
occur. It was just another day with the
same old routine and the same responsibilities and worries. But then the Lord blessed them and they saw
that their work was not simply about fish, but about bringing people into the
eternal life of the Kingdom of God.
Surely, the disciples knew that they
couldn’t take credit for such a large haul of fish. And there was no way that they could become
fishers of men simply by their own power.
We are made of the dust of the earth, enlivened by the breath of
God. We are just flesh and blood. We can’t make fish swim into our nets or even
solve many of the small problems we encounter every day. Much less can we give
anyone eternal life.
The good news of the gospel,
however, is that our Lord is able to bless and transform our humble work, the
difficult situations we face, and all the struggles of our lives. No matter what we are doing, no matter how
well or poorly it seems to be going, no matter how frustrated we may be, Christ
is with us, inviting us to make the same old frustrating and boring routine
into a ministry of the Kingdom.
Granted, the disciples were called
to a very special ministry in the founding of the Church; they had to leave
their old occupations and serve the Lord full-time as evangelists, apostles,
and bishops. Some continue to be called
to serve in that way. But most of us
will remain right where we are, spending each day in an office, a shop, a
classroom, or some other workplace. We
may be tempted to think that what we do has no spiritual significance, that we
are somehow second or third-class in our service of the Kingdom because we
remain in the same old world. But that
would be a great error, for all work is holy because it provides opportunities
to be good stewards of God’s creation and to offer our lives and the fruits of
our labor to the Lord for blessing and fulfillment.
Yes, our work and our education can
be very difficult, but we are called to bear our crosses and learn patience
through our struggles and problems. In
response to disappointments and difficulties, we have opportunities to grow in
humility and trust. That is what
Zacharias and Elizabeth did as a faithful Jewish couple who had not been
blessed with children. Like the
disciples, their nets were empty and they had given up hope for children, an
especially painful situation for Jews who had a role to play in continuing the
family line of Abraham that God had promised to bless in the Old
Testament. Of course, the story of the
Hebrew people began with Abraham and Sarah, another elderly couple without
children, whose frustration and sorrow was overcome by God’s promise to bless
them and their descendants. They could
take no credit for this blessing and neither could the parents of John the
Baptist. And even though Zacharias
responded to the message of the Archangel Gabriel with doubt, he and Elizabeth
were still blessed beyond their expectations.
God always remains faithful to His promises, even though we are often
not faithful to ours.
Their life was not a bed of roses,
however, for Zacharias would be martyred when the wicked King Herod murdered
the young boys of Bethlehem. Elizabeth
died forty days later and John grew up in the wilderness as an ascetic prophet
who would eventually lose his head for criticizing the immorality of the royal
family. But God worked through these
painful circumstances to prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ, to
extend His promises to Abraham to all would have faith in the Savior.
Do you see what these stories have
in common? Barren elderly people have
babies. Fisherman who have caught
nothing suddenly find that their nets are breaking and their boats sinking
because of their large haul. And people
like you and me grow in patience, humility, and selflessness by enduring our
daily disappointments, worries, fears, and aches and pains. At times, we may feel that we are
accomplishing nothing and be tempted to think that there is no point at all to
what we do all day or maybe even to what we have done for years. But that would be truly a temptation, for the
Lord has promised never to abandon us, to be with us always, and we know His
power most when we have no doubt about our own weakness. If we are offering our lives to Him as best
we can, we can trust in His blessing—even if we cannot figure out how He is at
work in our present situation.
What is failure and frustration in
our eyes may present a unique opportunity for us to grow into the people God
wants us to be, to prepare us for a role we cannot yet imagine. He used the childlessness of Zacharias and
Elizabeth to prepare the way for Christ.
He used the frustration of the fisherman to open their hearts to the new
life of discipleship. And in ways that
we probably do not yet have the eyes to see, He calls us to use our present circumstances
as an opportunity to grow in faith, hope, and love and to better serve Him and
our neighbors.
Contrary to what our culture
teachers, our work is not simply about us.
It is a form of service through which we transform God’s good creation
for His glory. And we don’t do it alone
for we journey together toward a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus’ Christ’s ministry of feeding the
hungry, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, and proclaiming good
news to the poor shows that His salvation concerns the real-life challenges
that people continue to face in the world as we know it. He showed God’s love for the hated Gentiles
and Samaritans, for people who had fallen into great sin and were shunned by
respectable people. In His Body, the
Church, all peoples and nations are reconciled and united in the life of the
Kingdom. We cannot judge Him by worldly
standards and neither should we judge ourselves in that way.
Whether we see it or not, our daily
work plays a role in bringing His salvation to the world. Everything that we do and say should be a
sign of God’s blessing. We all have the
opportunity to forgive those who wrong us; to work toward reconciliation with
those from whom we have become estranged; to refuse to treat people differently
because they look, act, or think differently than we do; and not to let greed
or ambition get in the way of relating to others with honesty, kindness, and
decency. Of course, our work must
support us financially, but there is a difference between meeting our
legitimate needs and selfishly worshipping comfort, convenience, and
commercialism. When we have the
opportunity to encourage our co-workers, classmates, or businesses to serve
Christ in the poor, lonely, or troubled, we should do so.
Like Abraham and Sarah, Zacharias
and Elizabeth, and John the Baptist, our calling is to use the challenges, blessings,
and painful struggles of our daily lives to grow in holiness as we play our role
in making this world an icon of God’s salvation. That’s how we may all become fishers of men. So even if we feel like we have fished all
night and caught nothing, it’s time to let down our nets again in obedience to
Christ’s command. He alone turns
apparent failure into glorious victory.
He alone works even through our troubles to bless us. So we must not fall into despair or fear, but
instead trust that God is with us and at work in our lives.
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