Fearlessly Putting into the Deep, Fifth Sunday (C), February 6, 2022

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
February 6, 2022
Is 6:1-8, Ps 138, 1 Cor 15:1-11, Lk 5:1-11

To listen to an audio recording of today’s Gospel, please click below: 

The following text guided the homily: 

• Today we have three vocation stories — Simon Peter’s, Isaiah’s and Paul’s — all of which teach us something about our own vocation to be faithful disciples and ardent apostles and which provide us, today, a chance to to renew our commitment to that calling and mission.
• Early one morning, Jesus was at the shore of the Sea of Galilee, teaching. As more people began to awaken and come down to the shore, the crowd listening to Jesus grew. As Jesus was being crushed by the crowds, he gently hijacked Simon’s cleaned boat so that he might sit a little bit away from the shore to teach. With the wind coming over his shoulder as a natural amplifier, Jesus nourished the famished crowd with his words. But it was no coincidence that Jesus was there that morning. It was no coincidence that he asked to borrow Simon’s boat. Jesus had come to do more than teach the crowd. He had come to catch a big fish. He had come to convert and call Simon.
• After Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon Peter, “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch!” Few statements could have sounded more ridiculous to a fisherman. Simon must have had to control himself from saying something unkind. He was a professional on the Sea of Galilee, and like all the other fishermen, he knew that fish were successfully caught in shallow water at night, not in deep water in broad daylight. It would be as if a fisherman had told Jesus, a carpenter, to drive in nails by holding the head of the hammer and striking with the handle. It made no sense. Moreover, Peter was tired after a long night. He was frustrated that he had nothing to show for hours of hard work. He had just spent time cleaning all of his equipment, to put everything away for the day. So in what was probably the nicest way he could, he replied, “Master, we have worked all night but have caught nothing.” He likely looked silently into Jesus’ eyes for understanding. But Jesus didn’t flinch. He looked at Peter intensely without saying a word. What was going on in Peter’s mind? “No one had ever spoken like this one,” Peter might have been whispering to himself: “Is it possible that he might know something I don’t about fishing? Probably not, although how can I refuse what he asks for and embarrass him and embarrass myself in front of this entire crowd?” Peter finally gave in. “At your word,” he told Jesus, “I will let down the nets.” They got into the boat again and paddled far away from shore to the deep water. Probably many of those who had listened to Jesus were watching to see how the drama would unfold.
• We know what happened. Peter and his companions won the fisherman’s equivalent of the megabucks, catching so many fish that their nets were about to break and two boats were about to sink. Peter couldn’t help but think, however, that he was unworthy of such a gift from God. Rather than run to Jesus, hug him and thank him, he fell down at Jesus’ knees and begged, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” He was afraid of what this blessing to such a sinner might mean. Jesus spoke right to Peter’s heart and said, “Do not be afraid!” Then he gave Peter his vocation: “From now on, you will be catching men!” When they had brought their boats to shore, Peter and Andrew, James and John, left everything behind — their fishing vessels, their nets, the treasure they had just caught — and followed Jesus. And they went out on a worldwide fishing expedition. As we would see after the Resurrection, when the Lord would renew Peter in his Mission by recapitulating a wondrous draught of fish, Peter would catch 3,000 on Pentecost, putting out into the deep at the Lord’s command and continuing to do so until he would proclaim it by his crucifixion three decades later in Rome.
• So often we can feel like we’re in Peter’s sandals after hearing Jesus preach. In many areas of life, but particularly in spiritual concerns, we can work so hard and seem to have so little to show for it. In our prayer life, we can sometimes think that we’re getting nothing out of our efforts. With our call to spread the Gospel, we can sometimes strive diligently to share our faith with family members and friends, or with our co-workers or fellow students, fellow parishioners, priests and religious — and believe that we’ve made no progress. With regard to the culture that surrounds us, it is not uncommon for people to become exasperated, not knowing even where to begin to help our society become more moral. To each of us in these situations, Jesus says, like he said to Peter, “Put out into the deep water.… Trust in me!” We might think that from a human point of view what Jesus asks us to do makes little or no sense, or is a waste of time. We can think the odds seem so slim. Jesus, after all, says so many things, that fly in the face of the common human way of looking at things: “Happy are the poor in spirit, … the pure of heart, …the peacemakers, … those who mourn, … who hunger for holiness, … who are persecuted.… Unless you pick up your Cross daily and follow me… Turn the other cheek … Forgive 70 times 7 times. … Heaven rejoices more for one repentant sinner… Unless you gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood.” But to each of these, like Peter, we’re called to say, “Lord, at your word, I will lower the nets,” leave behind the security of the shore and of human wisdom and put out into the deep trusting that all things are possible with God.
• Jesus’ conversation with Peter at the shore is so pivotal to the Catholic faith that in 2001, when St. John Paul II was giving us his pastoral plan for the Third Christian Millennium, he took as the motto for the thousand year period of Christianity we’ve really just begun from Jesus’ words to Peter: “Duc in altum,” Latin for, “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch!” John Paul II was convinced that these words aptly describe the Church’s situation and what needs to be her response. The reason is because it points to a trust in the Lord’s words above every other factor, that even if we were to have all the professors in the world on one side, and Jesus alone on the other, we should trust Jesus. But that’s not the only reason the Pope selected it. In it, as well, we find very clearly spelled out what our Christian vocation and mission is in the midst of our time. The Lord Jesus calls each Christian, as he called Peter and Andrew, James and John, to be a fisher of men, to go out to try to bring other fish into the salvation of Peter’s boat, the Church, in which Christ is still sitting and teaching. Being a fisher of men is not the job only of priests, bishops and religious, of catechists and Catholic schoolteachers, but each of the baptized. It’s our mission as a Christian, flowing from our vocation. It’s not enough for us merely to pray each day. It’s not enough for us faithfully to live by Christ’s commandments and then mind our business. Christ calls us to love our neighbor. And the greatest act of love we can do for our neighbor is to bring the neighbor to Christ and bring Christ to our neighbor. Just like in the Gospel, Peter, James, John and Andrew — the soon-to-be apostles — “called to their friends in the other boat to come and help them,” so the successors of St. Peter and the apostles are calling to us, their friends, to come to help them bring more and more fish into Peter’s boat, to share in the task of the new evangelization. That’s why St. John Paul II told us back in 2001, “At the beginning of the new millennium, and at the close of the Great Jubilee during which we celebrated the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of Jesus and a new stage of the Church’s journey begins, our hearts ring out with the words of Jesus when … he invited the Apostle to ‘put out into the deep’ for a catch: ‘Duc in altum’(Lk 5:4). Peter and his first companions trusted Christ’s words, and cast the nets. … Duc in altum! These words ring out for us today. … We must look ahead, we must ‘put out into the deep,’ trusting in Christ’s words. … As this millennium begins, allow the Successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith.” In this new thousand year period of Christianity we’ve just begun, the act of faith we need to make is to “put out into the deep” on mission, to believe in Jesus and what he says and does enough that we will give our life to help others come to believe in him, what he teaches and what he still does.
• Many of us might think we’re unworthy for such a task, that the Lord couldn’t possibly be calling you or me. But the readings today are a very strong rejection of that line of thought. In the first reading, Isaiah was awed at God’s majesty and holiness, as he beheld in a vision seraphs singing “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah was well aware of his sinfulness and thought he was unfit to be in the presence of such holiness. “Woe is me! I’m lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” But God fixed that problem, sending a seraph to cleanse his mouth, take away his guilt and blot out his sin so that he could use that mouth to spread God’s word. In the Gospel, faced with the Lord Jesus’ majesty in the working of the miracle, Peter exclaimed, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man,” but the Lord told him not to be afraid, because the Lord had come to the seashore precisely to call that sinner to himself and then to send him out to call other sinners to repentance. The story of St. Paul from the second reading is perhaps the most powerful. He used to hunt down, torture and kill Christians for a living. If anyone was unworthy to carry out the task of preaching the Good News, it was this man, who had tried to extinguish it. But the Lord met him on the road to Damascus and purified him so that he might be his chosen vessel to take the Gospel to the nations. St. Paul says today, “Last of all, as to one untimely born [an “abortion,” someone “born dead”], he appeared also to me. I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.” He passed on to us as of primary importance the Gospel he himself received and even used his past sinfulness as a motivation: “I worked harder than any of them,” because he had been forgiven even more.
• Faced with their callings, none Christian has room to hide. Today, as in the time of Isaiah, and Peter and Paul, the Lord says, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Each of us called, like Isaiah, to say, “Here I am, Lord!” We cannot pass the buck to the next Christian in line, to the person sitting next to us in the chapel or the Church, or to the priest at the pulpit, or to Catholic school teachers or catechists, or to those who speak at Catholic megaconferences, or minister on Catholic radio or television. Each is us is called — without exception — to answer personally, “Send me.” We’re summoned, like Peter, Andrew, James and John, to leave behind whatever might keep us from the Lord and follow him, being sent out into the deep water of the world to fish for souls. We’re called, like St. Paul, to “work harder than any” of the rest in passing on to others as of first importance the Gospel we have received, because of the Lord’s great mercy, love and trust in calling us and sending us by our baptism and confirmation. We’re called to sing God’s praises even in the sight of angels, not to mention men, giving thanks to him with all our heart.
• Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s whole life is a witness to how to put this Gospel into practice. Who would have thought a young girl from Skopje, not to mention even a successful teaching Sister of Our Lady of Loreto and headmistress in Entally, would have changed the history of the world and become a pivotal figure in Church and salvation history? But when the Lord spoke to her on a train to Darjeeling, when he asked her to come be his light, satiate his infinite thirst for souls, and go out on a mission of charity throughout the globe she, with trust in his words, launched out into the deep and she inspired so many of her former students and so many future daughters to say with her, “Here I am, Lord. Send me, too.” The worldwide fishing port continues here, from this harbor, on 145th Street.
• Today at Mass, Jesus has once again gotten into Peter’s boat, a symbol of the Church. He has taught us, the crowds, from the pulpit. He knows how hard we’ve been working, but he tells us to trust in him as he sends us out again, when we least expect it, to where we least expect it. To strengthen us for this mission, he is about to feed us with his body and blood. What Isaiah witnessed in his vision is about to be fulfilled,  when all the seraphim, cherubim and angels will surround this altar as we join in their unending hymn to the King, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. Heaven and Earth are full of your glory.” The Lord whom we’re about to receive is thrice holy and wants to make us holy so that he can send us out with the instructions — Duc in Altum! — to fish not just in the East and Hudson Rivers, not just in Long Island Sound, but even on the asphalt of the Bronx, Manhattan and beyond. The only fitting response is to make Isaiah’s and Peter’s words our own, “Here I am, Lord. Send me! At your word, I will lower the nets for a catch!”

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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