February 9, 2025
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 75
Reading
1
In the year King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above.
They cried one to the other,
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory!"
At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook
and the house was filled with smoke.
Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it, and said,
"See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
"Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"
"Here I am," I said; "send me!"
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1c) In the sight of the angels I will sing your
praises, Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth;
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD:
"Great is the glory of the LORD."
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Reading 2
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit 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 to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.
Or
Brothers and sisters,
I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one abnormally born,
he appeared to me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come after me
and I will make you fishers of men.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening
to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
"Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."
Simon said in reply,
"Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets."
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020925.cfm
Sunday of Week 5 of Ordinary Time
(Year C)
Commentary on Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11;
Luke 5:1-11
Today, we are asked to consider three interlocking elements
of our Christian living: faith, experience and apostleship. Our faith has two
elements. The first is expressed by Paul in the Second Reading where he gives
the briefest summary of what the Christian message is about. To ‘have faith’ at
that level is to accept that message as true and credible. For many Catholics,
faith often stops at that point. If a person fully accepts the teaching of the
Catholic Church (as opposed, for example, to teachings of Protestant churches),
we sometimes hear people say, “She or he has the faith”. Some Catholics like to
spend a lot of time spelling out in detail what is orthodox and what is not,
and condemning those they believe to be ‘deviating from the true Faith’. For
some people, faith can even be a painful matter and lead to scruples.
Faith
However, there is another level of faith which we ignore at our peril.
And it is the meaning that predominates in the Gospel. The Greek word for
“faith” is pistis. The basic meaning of pistis is
“trust”. To have faith in Jesus is to put one’s total trust in him.
That involves a different kind of relationship from the
first. We might express the difference as between ‘believing a person’ (what he
or she says is true and reliable) and ‘believing in a person’
(I would be ready to put myself totally into the hands of that person). The
statements “I believe what you say” and “I completely trust you” are quite
distinct in meaning and application. I might well be ready to believe as true
what someone tells me, while being not at all ready to entrust my life to their
care.
Both levels are at work when we speak of Christian faith,
but the second is surely the real test. A real faith not only accepts the
content of God’s message, but involves a total surrender of one’s self and all
one has and is into God’s hands. A complete letting go. It is something like
those group dynamics games where you let yourself fall back into the arms of
another person, trusting they will not let you fall to the ground. It will not
be enough for them just to say: “I won’t let you fall.” Something more on my
part will be needed.
Deep water
This is basically what we see happening in today’s Gospel. Peter and his
companions are the experts when it comes to fishing in that lake. But even so,
after a whole night’s work they have nothing to show for their efforts. Then
Jesus, after he had finished teaching the crowds (giving them the message to
believe), suggests that they go out into the “deep water” and let down their
nets. There is an element of scepticism and even condescension in Peter’s
reply:
Master, we [the professionals] have
worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let
down the nets.
The result was overwhelming and totally beyond their
expectations—their nets could hardly hold the catch. It was their first test of
faith in Jesus. The same call comes to us: “Go out into the deep water… Trust
me completely… and you will be in for a pleasant surprise.” We really have not
learnt to believe until we have reached that level of total and unconditional
trust in the Way of Jesus.
It is clear, too, that the huge catch of fish is just a
symbol of what they and their successors will do later in drawing people to
become followers of Christ. A large harvest will materialise, and it will be
the work of the Lord.
Experience
The second key word today is ‘experience’. It is linked with the second
level of faith. Too many of us were told to limit our Christian faith to the
doctrines we were taught at home, in the church or in school. Church history
teaches us that many strange forms of Christianity have emerged from
‘experience’. There are many descriptions of what happens when people get
carried away by what they believe to be a Christian experience and end up with
very distorted views of the Christian message.
At the same time, an over-emphasis on doctrine is not good
either. It can lead to a very impersonal religion, a religion which becomes
legalistic or intellectual in the bad sense and often far removed from a close,
loving relationship with God and people. You know things are going astray when
people are more worried about the kind of vestments the priest is wearing (or
not wearing) than about the plight of the poor and needy on their doorstep.
To be a Christian is first and foremost to have an
experience of Christ. It is to find oneself in relationship with him in all the
circumstances of one’s life. It is to find him challenging us to love, to have
compassion, to practise justice, to live in freedom, to be able to forgive and
be reconciled, to be kind, gentle and accepting; it is to seek, to find and to
respond to him in all things. It is, because of this, to live lives of joy and
peace in the midst of pain and turmoil. This is really more important that
being able to give an approved explanation of the Trinity or the Immaculate
Conception. It was a medieval writer who said: “I would prefer to experience
repentance than be able to define it”.
Apostleship
Our third word today is “apostleship”. This word should be distinguished
from “discipleship”. To be a disciple is basically to be a follower of some
master or guru. The word ‘disciple’ comes from the Latin verb discere,
to teach. The noun is discipulus, one who receives teaching. One
learns from the master and one tries to incorporate his teaching into one’s own
life. Obviously, in that sense, we are called to be disciples of Jesus.
However, today’s readings ask for more than that. We are not only to follow and
make Jesus’ Way our own. Part of our calling is to become ‘gurus’ ourselves in
the sense of transmitting the message of Jesus to others.
After the sensational catch of fish, Peter is absolutely
overwhelmed by what has happened. He knows that he is present before the power
of God himself. All his arrogance disappears and he is overcome by his own
smallness and unworthiness. He exclaims:
Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!
It is, in fact, a true sign of an experience with God.
Anyone who truly comes face to face with God must become aware of their
littleness and what might be called the shabbiness of their lives.
It is a reaction which we find in all the three readings
today. Isaiah says, for instance:
Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips…yet
my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!
Paul, not particularly known for his modesty, says:
…I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an
apostle…
In spite of that, all—Peter, Paul, Isaiah—were called to be
apostles. The word ‘apostle’ means a person delegated and sent out to convey a
message or carry out a mission on his or her master’s behalf. These three men
were called and, indeed, every person who wishes to be known as a Christian is
called not only to be a disciple, a follower, but also an apostle, a herald, a
proclaimer. And it is done not just by words, but by the whole witness of what
one is and does. Says Isaiah:
Here am I; send me!
As well, Paul says:
…I worked harder than any of them… [in preaching
the Gospel of Jesus]
In the Gospel, Jesus tells Peter:
Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching
people.
The message to Peter was: “If with my help you can catch so
many fish, just imagine how many people you will draw to become disciples.”
It is a totally natural outcome from the faith that we have
in Jesus which leads us to the unique experience and joy of knowing him and
putting him unconditionally at the centre of our life. That is an experience
that we must share, not because we are told to, but because we cannot help
doing so. True discipleship of itself overflows into apostleship. This was what
happened on that day when Peter, James and John left everything and went after
Jesus.
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Sunday, February 9, 2025
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father, now your
Word has come! It has appeared like the sun after a dark night, empty and
solitary. When your Word is not present, it is always thus, I know. Grant me
the soft breeze from the sea of your Holy Spirit and may it gather me, walk
with me towards Christ, your living Word to whom I wish to listen. I shall not
move from this shore, where he teaches and speaks, but I shall stay here until
such time as he takes me with him. Then I shall follow him wherever he takes
me.
Gospel Reading – Luke 5: 1-11
• Placing the
passage in its context:
This passage, full of great theological intensity, comes at the center of a journey of faith and of meeting with the Lord Jesus, who leads us from deafness to being able to hear, from the most paralyzing sickness to the saving healing that makes us capable of helping our brothers and sisters to be reborn with us. Jesus has begun his preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth, giving sense and light to the words in the scroll of the Torah (4: 16 ss.). He has defeated sin (4: 31-37) and sickness (4: 38-41), driving them away from the heart of human beings and he has announced the mysterious force that sent him to us and by which he moves, running like a giant who reaches every corner of the earth. It is a this point that we hear the answerthat is the beginning of what follows, that is, the obedience of faith. It is at this point that the Church and a new people are born, those able to hear and respond with a yes.
•
vv. 1-3: Jesus is on the shore of lake Genesareth and before him is a
large crowd of people, eager to listen to the Word of God. He goes into a boat
and pushes off a little. As teacher and guide, he sits on the waters and rules
them, and from there he offers salvation to those who listen to and welcome the
Word of God
•
vv. 4-6: Jesus invites some to go fishing and Peter trusts him, believes
in the Word of the Master. In faith he launches into the deep and casts his
nets. Because of his faith, the catch is over-abundant, it is miraculous.
•
v.7: Meeting Jesus is never a closed matter. The meeting always leads to
communication, sharing. Indeed, the gift is too great and cannot be held by one
person. Peter calls his mates in another boat and the gift is doubled and grows
continually.
• Vv. 8-11: Peter kneels before Jesus, adores him and recognizes his sinfulness, his nothingness, but Jesus calls him with the same authority that made so many seas obey him throughout Scripture: “Fear not!” God reveals himself and becomes the companion of men and women. Peter accepts the mission of delivering men and women, his brothers and sisters, from the waters of the world and of sin, just as he was delivered. He leaves his boat, his nets, the fish and follows Jesus, he and his mates.
• The Gospel Text:
1 While the people pressed
upon him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesareth. 2 And he saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen
had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting
into one of the boats, which was Simons, he asked him to put out a little from the
land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon,
"Put out into the deep and let down
your nets for a catch." 5 And Simon answered,
"Master, we toiled all night and took
your word I will let down the nets. 6 And
when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets
were breaking, 7 they beckoned to their partners
in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the
boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon
Peter saw it, he fell at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a
sinful man, O Lord." 9 For he was
astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had
taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons
of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not
be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." 11
And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and
followed him.
A Moment of
Prayerful Silence
During this time of silence and solitude accorded to me so
that I can stay with Him, I go away from
the shore a little way, take to the deep and, trusting in the Lord, I cast the
net into the deep and I wait…
Some Questions
• “He sat down and taught the people from the
boat.” Jesus comes down, sits and takes up his abode among us, he bends
down even to touching our earth and from this smallness he offers us his
teaching, his Word of salvation. Jesus offers me time, space, full availability
to meet him and know him, but do I know how to pause, to stay, to take root in
Him and before Him?
• “He asked him to put out a little from the
land.” The Lord’s request is gradual, in fact, after this first putting out
from the land, He asks him to launch into the deep. “Put out into the deep!”:
an invitation addressed to every man and woman. Do I have faith, trust, and
confidence in him to let go of my concerns? Do I look at myself sincerely and
seriously? Where do the treasures of my life lie?
• “I will let down the nets” Peter gives us a brilliant example of faith in the Word of Jesus. In this passage, the verb “let down” occurs twice: the first time it refers to the nets and the second to the person of Peter. The significance is clear: before the Lord we can let down our whole being. We let down, but He gathers, always and with an absolute and infallible faithfulness. Do I feel like taking my life, n is, and letting it down at the feet of Jesus, in Him, so that He, once more, may gather me, heal and save me, making of me a new person?
• “They beckoned to their partners in the other boat.” Again, Peter becomes a guide on my journey and shows me how to be open to others, to share, because it is not possible to remain isolated and closed in the Church. We are all sent: “Go to my brethren and say to them” (Jn 20: 17). Am I able to bring my boat close to that of others? Am I able to share with my brothers and sisters the gifts and riches the Lord has given me to hold in trust?
A Key to the Reading
• The sea and the
theme of the exodus:
Jesus is standing by the seashore. He stands above the dark,
menacing, and unknown tides of the sea and of life. He stands before this crowd
of people gathered, ready to listen to him and ready for the journey, He who is
the good shepherd with the staff of his Word. He wishes to take us across the
seas and oceans of this world on a journey of salvation that brings us
before Him, as had already happened at
the Red Sea (Ex 14: 21-23) and on the banks of the Jordan (Jn 3: 14-17). Even
the sea of sand in the desert is overcome by the power of his Word and opens
up, becoming a garden, a level and passable road (Is 43: 16-21) for those who
decide to go on the return journey to God and allow themselves to be guided by
Him. In these few verses of the Gospel, the Lord once more prepares for us the
great miracle of the exodus, of the coming outof the darkness of death through
the saving crossing to the green pastures of friendship with Him and the
listening to his voice. All is ready:
our name has been called with
infinite love by the good
shepherd, who knows us from all eternity
and who guides us for all eternity, never
allowing us to fall from his hand.
• Listening in faith
that leads to obedience:
This passage from Luke is the second concerning the glorious journey that the Lord Jesus presents to us. The crowd gathers closely around Jesus, urged by the intimate desire to “hear the Word of God”; this is the answer to the constant invitation of the Father, which we find throughout the Scriptures: “Hear, O Israel!” (Dt 6: 4) e “If only my people would hear me!” (Ps 80: 14). It is as if the crowd were saying: “Yes, I will hear what God proclaims, the Lord” (Ps 85: 9). But the kind of hearing that is mentioned and suggested is complete, not superficial; it is alive and life-giving, not dead; it is the hearing of faith, not of incredulity and of hardness of heart. It is the hearing that says: “Yes, Lord, at your word I will let down my nets.” The call addressed to us just now is the call to faith, to trust in him and in every word that comes from his lips, certain that whatever he says will come true. As God said to Abraham: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” (Gen 18: 14) or to Jeremiah: “Is anything impossible to me?” (Jer 32: 27); cfr. also Zac 8: 6. Or as it was said to Mary: “Nothing is impossible for God” (Lk 1: 37) and she replied: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.” That is the point we must reach, like Mary, like Peter. We cannot be just hearers, otherwise we would be deceiving ourselves, as James says (1: 19-25); we would continue to be deceived by forgetfulness, and we would be lost. The Word must be realized, put into practice, fulfilled. Great is the ruin of the one who hears the Word but does not put it into practice; we must dig deep and lay foundations on the rock, that is, faith in practice (cfr. Lk 6: 46-49).
• Fishing as the
mission of the Church:
Fidelity to hearing and the faith leads to mission, that is, to enter into that society that Jesus instituted for the spreading of the kingdom. It seems that Luke, in this passage, wishes to present the Church living the post-paschal experience of the encounter with the risen Jesus. We note, in fact, the many allusions to the passage in Jn 21: 1-8. Jesus chooses a boat and chooses Peter and, from the boat, he calls men and women, sons and daughters, to carry on his mission. We note that the verb “put out into the deep” is in the singular, referring to Peter who is given the task of guide, but the act of fishing is in the plural: “let down your nets,” referring to all those who wish to adhere to and participate in the mission. This one mission and common task of all is beautiful and sparkling, it is joyful! It is the apostolic mission, which begins now, in obedience to the Word of the Lord and that will reach the deep, even to the ends of the earth (cfr. Mt 28: 19; Acts 1: 8; Mk 16: 15; 13: 10; Lk 24: 45-48).
It is interesting to note the word that Luke uses to point
out the mission given by Jesus to
Peter, and to
all of us,
when he says:
“Do not be
afraid, henceforth you shall
catch men.” Here we do not come across the term found in
Mt 4: 18 ff., and in Mk 1: 16 or even in this passage in v.
2, which issimply fishing; here we find a new word, which appears only twice in
the whole of the New Testament, and which derives from the verb “to capture,” in
the sense of “taking alive and keeping alive.” Indeed, the fishing people of the
Lord, let down their nets into the sea of the world to offer to people Life, to
tear them from the abyss and make them come back to true life. Peter and the
others, we and our sailing partners in this world, can continue, if we wish, wherever
we are, his wonderful mission as sent by the Father “to save what was lost” (Lk
19: 10).
A Time of Prayer:
Psalm 6
A hymn of praise to the Lord, who has opened our hearts to faith.
Rit. My strength and my song is
the Lord; he has saved me!
Make a joyful noise to God, all
the earth; sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Say to God, "How terrible
are your deeds!
All the earth worships you; they
sing praises to you, sing praises to
your
name.
Come and see what God has done:
he is terrible in his deeds among
men. He turned the sea into dry land;
men passed through the river on
foot. There did we rejoice in him.
Bless our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be
heard, who has kept us among the living,
and has not let our feet slip.
For you, O God, have tested us; You have tried us as silver is tried. You
brought us into the net;
we went through fire and through
water;
yet you have brought us forth to
a spacious place. Come and hear, all you
who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done
for me. I cried aloud to him, and he was
extolled with my tongue. But truly God has listened;
he has given heed to the voice of
my prayer. Blessed be God, because he
has not rejected my prayer or
removed his steadfast love from me!
Closing Prayer
Lord, you opened the sea and came to me; you split the night and began a new day in my life! You spoke your Word to me and touched my heart; you made me go with you into the boat and brought me to the deep. Lord, you have done great things! I praise you, I bless you and thank you, in your Word, in your Son Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. Always take me into the deep with you, in you and you in me, so that I may let down many nets of love, friendship, sharing and seeking your face and your kingdom here on earth. Lord, I am a sinner, I know! But for this too I thank you, because you did not come to call the just but sinners and I hear your voice and follow you. Behold, Father, I leave everything and come with you…
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