Luke
5:1-11
2
Corinthians 6: 16-7:1
One of the great blessings of
children is to have a sense of wonder.
Those of us who have been around the block a few times, however, easily
fall into the mindset of taking things for granted, of thinking that we have
seen it all before, and allowing nothing to shake us up. Consequently, we often shut our eyes to the great
blessings all around us and even to the presence of the Lord in our lives.
Whether St. Peter had lost his sense
of wonder before he countered Jesus Christ, we do not know. But like any professional fisherman, he certainly
thought that putting out his nets one more time after a night of catching
nothing would be a waste of time. That
is basically what he told the Lord, but in obedience to Him, he did so
nonetheless. And all of a sudden, the
nets were breaking and the boats were sinking due to the huge catch of fish.
St. Peter’s surprise is shown by
what he did next. He fell down before
Christ and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” In other
words, he knew that he had seen nothing like this before. His eyes were opened to the wonder of the
situation and his own inadequacy before it.
He knew in his soul that what had happened was not simply about nets,
fish, and boats, but about what it means to encounter the Lord as someone
unworthy to do so. Despite all his
failings and weaknesses, St. Peter had the spiritual clarity of the Prophet
Isaiah when he had a vision of God in the heavenly temple (Isa. 6:5): “Woe is me, because I am
pierced to the heart, for being a man and having unclean lips, I dwell in the
midst of a people with unclean lips; for I saw the King, the Lord of hosts, with my own
eyes.” Before the glory of God, they both
responded with humility.
St. Peter’s day probably had begun
like any other day, full of hard work with no expectation for anything out of
the ordinary. Like all of us, those
fishermen went about their familiar routines with their usual responsibilities and
concerns. Everything seemed perfectly normal, but then
the Lord blessed them and enabled them to see that their work was not simply
about fish, but about bringing people into the eternal life of the Kingdom of
God. Something as ordinary as catching
fish became a heavenly vision. Imagine
that.
When St. Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, he was dealing with other matters.
He had to remind a bunch of confused Gentile converts to separate
themselves from evil, cleanse themselves from defilement, and “make holiness
perfect in the fear of God.” He told them to turn away from sexual immorality, idolatry,
and other corrupt practices. Many today face
similar challenges, perhaps in part because we have lost our sense of wonder at
God’s presence in our lives. In other
words, we think of our routines, our relationships, our temptations, and our
blessings as simply the way things are.
We adjust to them, take them for granted, and do not open the eyes of
our souls to what God may be calling us to do and to become in relation to
them. Consequently, we lose hope that
He will transform our seemingly futile struggles into abundant joy. We despair of finding healing for our souls. We think that our nets will always be empty
and that each day will be like the one before.
And because we so easily lose hope, we are not inclined to obey the Lord
like St. Peter did in letting down our nets down just one more time.
If you think about it, that is all
that the Lord ever asks of us. One day
at a time, to be faithful. One day at a
time, to say “no” to our self-centered desires.
One day at a time, to recognize that we always live in the presence of
the burning bush of His divine glory, that we are always on holy ground.
This past week we celebrated the
Feast of the Conception of St. John the Forerunner. Even though his father Zacharias was a priest
serving in the Jerusalem temple, he had apparently lost his sense of wonder
before the holiness of God. So when the
Archangel Gabriel told him that he and Elizabeth were to conceive a child in
their old age, he responded with doubt—apparently forgetting about Abraham and
Sarah, who also miraculously conceived late in life. Even as he was burning
incense in the temple, he had shut his eyes to the divine glory. Perhaps not being able to speak again until
after birth of John helped to set him straight and to see his long-awaited son
as God’s gracious gift which he did not deserve.
His example shows us that the Lord is
at work in our lives in ways that have nothing to do with what we deserve. The Bible is filled with other similar
stories. Not long after being blessed by God to be the father of a great
nation, Abraham gave away his wife Sarah to Pharaoh out of fear. That could have stopped the story of the Hebrew
people even as it began, but God worked through him anyway. Right after being
called through the burning bush, Moses thought of every excuse imaginable to
get out of leading the Hebrews away from Egypt. Nonetheless, God still used him. Even after
the Lord explained His identity and ministry quite clearly to St. Peter, the
chief disciple denied Him three times and abandoned Him at His crucifixion. Regardless, Christ still called him. The great
Apostle Paul was a dedicated persecutor of Christians until the Risen Lord
miraculously appeared to Him in a blinding light on the road to Damascus. That horrible past did not, however, keep St.
Paul from becoming a great saint and missionary.
The lesson for us is clear: We must not use our sins, failings, weaknesses,
or life circumstances as excuses to say that God is not present and active in
our lives. He always has and continues
to call sinners like me and you to serve Him.
His blessing is not for a select few, but for all He creates in His
image and likeness, for all who are called to faith in Jesus Christ, regardless
of our ancestry, the nature of our personal struggles or temptations, or the
history of our own personal brokenness.
If we will only open the eyes of our
souls, we will behold His glory and blessing shining as brightly as a burning bush
in ways that may be as surprising as a huge catch of fish that threatens to
break our nets and sink our boats. If we
only have the eyes to see, we will know His presence so powerfully that we will
fall before Him like St. Peter with a sense of our own inadequacy before His
holiness and abundant mercy.
Granted, all this might seem easier
to accept if God worked an obvious miracle in a spectacular fashion. But if that happened, would our faith really
grow and mature? Would we ever learn to view
God as anything other than a genie that grants our wishes? He is not the one in this relationship who
needs to change. We must patiently do
our part to clarify our spiritual vision, to open the eyes of our souls to what
the Lord is already doing. Very often
the point is not for God to change an outward circumstance, but for us to find
the spiritual strength to recognize the wonder of His presence already in our
lives. For as with the Prophet Elijah,
God usually does not speak to us through earthquake, wind, and fire, but
through the still small voice of a gentle breeze. (3 Kingdoms 19:11ff./ 1 Kings
19:11ff)
We will never hear His voice,
however, if we do not listen, which requires praying from our hearts on a
regular basis. If we do not shut out the
distractions of our own thoughts and the pointless chatter of our culture each
day, we will not be able to hear Him tell us to let down our nets just one more
time, to take the next small step of faithfulness, or to resist a seemingly
insurmountable temptation. We will never
fall before the Lord in humble gratitude for His countless blessings unless we gain
the spiritual clarity necessary to recognize His gracious presence already in
our daily lives, even in what is most familiar, routine, and taken for
granted. If we will only develop the
eyes to recognize His blessing and calling, then each and every one of us will
acquire a new sense of wonder that will bring us to our knees in thanksgiving
and humility. That is how we, like so
many other unworthy people before us, will find a power and peace in our lives
that we do not deserve, but that we will wonder how we ever lived without.
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