Homily on the 18th Sunday after Pentecost on the Gospel of the day:
Luke 5:1-11.
In this Sundays Gospel, we have the account of our Lord entering a fishing boat piloted by St Peter. In the time of our Lord, fishermen tended to work at night making their work more comfortable - if they worked in the day their lot would have been somewhat harder.
What is at the heart of today’s Gospel then? Well as soon as Jesus enters the boat he asks St Peter to launch out to deeper waters and cast his nets down for a catch. Now to St Peter this must have seemed to be a strange request as he had been fishing all night and caught nothing - however, it is St Peter’s response that is to be highlighted here. St Peter could have said to Jesus: “you must be mad asking me to cast my nets out again as I have tried all night and not caught a single fish - no I will not do it!” Rather, St Peter trusted Jesus and did exactly what Jesus asked and before his eyes his nets became full to the brim – in the end St Peter had to get the assistance of his fishing partner’s boat so that they could bring the catch to land. Furthermore, this Gospel highlights that though St Peter began his life as a humble fisherman his true calling was to be one who worked in the Lord’s vineyard (the world) bringing many to faith in Christ – truly becoming a ‘fisher of men’.
What does this mean for us, the body of Christ – Christ’s Church? In our lives as Christians we are called to bring the light of Christ to the world so that all may know the joy of life in Christ. Today we live in a world that can be very opposed to the message of Christ - making talking to people about the faith difficult. Nonetheless, as Christians we are called to have that same faith as exemplified by St Peter and despite our brokenness we are called to do our best to show people our trust in Christ through our faith, love and deeds. If we do this then we will truly become ‘fishers of men’ bringing many to faith in Christ just like St Peter.
Let our prayer be today that we will truly be open to the guidance of the All Holy Trinity and like St Peter that we will have absolute trust in God so that through our faith, love and deeds we may become ‘fishers of men’.
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