Jesus is the Word of God that bears fruit and carries out all the tasks it receives.  To listen to it means to catch plenty of fish. 

Simon who catches fish for a living, shows that he is glad to receive Jesus.  He lets him get into his boat and use it as a pulpit.  For Jesus teaches the crowds from the boat, away a bit from the shore.  These crowds are hungry for God’s word.  And due to their hunger, they pressed in on Jesus as he stood by the Lake of Gennesaret.

So then, Simon and the crowds are not like Jesus’ fellow villagers.  For these, who are not open to others and excludes them, rejected him at the synagogue in Nazareth.  Those, on the other hand, receive Jesus and listen to him.  And, soon enough, they get to see how effective is his word.

For, after speaking to the crowds, he tells Simon and the other fishermen to put out into the deep.  He wants them to lower their nets and catch fish.  In reply, Simon tells him of their futile toil.  Yet he does not fail to add, “But at your word, I will lower the nets.”  That is to say, the fisherman trusts more the Master’s word than what he himself knows about catching fish.  And such trust makes for a huge catch that the nets starts to tear.

The fishermen are to fish for men and women. 

Yes, that is how effective Jesus’ word is.  And in the face of the wonder that his word, solid, holy, true, yields, Simon cannot but kneel before Jesus and cry out, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  What Simon does and says is very much like what Isaiah did and said before the glorious, holy, true God.

But just as what Isaiah expected did not take place, neither does what Simon wants.  For the way Jesus picks, like the way God picks, is not the way we pick.  We humans like to pick from among the best, the most promising.  On the other hand, God, Jesus, picks not-so-qualified and ordinary men and women.  Those “born abnormally” too.  After all, what is crucial is that we are one with God, with Jesus.   And not that we have such and so many gifts and skills.

What is crucial is for the branches to abide in the vine.  For us to abide in Jesus, for without him we can do nothing.  To live off him, the Word of God, to be nourished with his body and blood, is what counts.

Lord Jesus, send us fishermen and fisherwomen who, at your word, will fish alongside you.  And make them, lowly, give credit for all success to you, God-with-us, to God’s grace (SV.EN VII:305, 380). 

9 February 2025
5th Sunday in O.T. (C)
Is 6, 1-2a. 3-8; 1 Cor 15, 1-11; Lk 5, 1-11