Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, February 5, 2022

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, C, Vigil
February 5, 2022

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

The following text guided the homily: 

• This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation Jesus wants to have with us in this Sunday’s Gospel, when we prayerfully penetrate into the vocational dialogue he had with Saint Peter. This conversation 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 the the motto for the thousand year period of Christianity we’ve 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. When we examine this Sunday’s Gospel more closely, we see why.
• 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. Jesus asked Simon Peter to borrow his boat so that he might sit a little bit away from the shore to teach the crowds. 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 3000 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.
• John Paul II proposed Jesus’ imperative “Put out into the deep water” as the motto for our life in the Church in this third millennium because so often we in the Church today can feel that we’re in Peter’s sandals. 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 it. With our call to spread the Gospel, we can sometimes strive diligently to share our faith with our husband or wife, or with our kids, or with our siblings and friends, or with our co-workers or fellow students — 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 would be 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 as well. … 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.
• So the first reason John Paul II proposed “Duc in altum!” as our motto 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 of us, 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 and bishops, or of nuns and catechists and Catholic schoolteachers, but each of us. 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.”
• At Mass on Sunday, Jesus will get into Peter’s boat, the symbol of the Church, again. He will teach us, the crowds, from the pulpit. He knows how hard we’ve been working, how frustrated we may be by our failures, how sinful a man or a woman we are, but tells us to trust in him as he sends us out again, when we least expect it, to where we least expect it. He wants to send us out to the deep waters in broad daylight as fishers of men, as hard working collaborators in the new evangelization. To strengthen us for this mission, he will feed us with his body and blood. Let us humbly, like St. Peter, respond: “Lord, at your word I will lower the nets,” and with faith set out together to catch as many as possible for Christ.

The Gospel on which the homily was based was: 

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