The Unforseen Catch
Julián Carrón - Before the glory of God, which Isaiah sees in a vision in which all the seraphim proclaim: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory”, the prophet perceives all his smallness and unworthiness: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips […]; yet my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts».
There is no more eloquent way to show the abysmal distance between God and man, between his holiness and human misery. This perception of his condition makes the prophet more ready to realize the importance of God's gesture with him. A seraph takes a burning coal and says to him: “Behold, this has touched your lips, therefore your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for”. What was the purpose of this divine initiative with Isaiah?
We can see it immediately. God showed Isaiah his worthiness, making him realize he was not good enough. At the same time, God made him interested in his beauty so that he could experience what he wanted to share with people. But to reach others, God wanted to use men like Isaiah. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'“
As if to say: are you willing to help me bring what you have seen to mankind? Faced with such an extraordinary favor, Isaiah could not resist: ‘’Here I am, send me,'” was his reply. After having contemplated the glory of God and been fascinated by it, nothing could be more important in life than to indulge it so as not to lose it, just as one indulges the attractiveness of a loved one so as not to lose them. Simple.
Now ready for the mission, his response: “Here I am, send me”, will do nothing but radiate the beauty that has invested him.
God uses the same method in the Gospel, but there is one big difference: now the glory is on a man, Jesus of Nazareth. How does Jesus manifest this glory? Not through a vision, like the one described in Isaiah, but through an event that everyone can see. Jesus said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
Simon answered, “Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything, but because you say so, I will let down the nets.” For an experienced fisherman like him, Jesus' command might have seemed absurd, yet Peter didn’t consider it unreasonable. How many times had Jesus already surprised him, performing deeds that went beyond all his expectations!
And once again Jesus didn't fail to amaze them: “They did so, and caught a huge number of fish, so many that their nets began to tear”. Jesus manifested his glory through the accomplishment of what seemed impossible, as can be seen from Peter's reaction.
“When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, 'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!' He and all those with him were astonished at the catch they had made.” Like Isaiah, before the splendor of God's glory, Peter also perceives his inadequacy in the face of Jesus' glory: ”Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.”
The glory, the splendor of Jesus' truth that Peter sees shining before his eyes, makes him more aware of himself and his pettiness than any other word. What a deep impression Jesus' words must have made on Peter, so conscious of his unworthiness because he immediately tells him: “Do not be afraid; from now on, you will be a fisher of men”!
Don't be afraid of your inadequacy: from now on, you will never be able to forget the splendor of the glory you have seen, it will mark you forever! Jesus' liberating gaze has a unique effect on Peter: “And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” They followed him because they didn't want to lose that presence that attracted them so powerfully.
How can we not understand them? And by following him they became fishers of men, conquering others as they had been conquered themselves, shining with that glory they had seen. This method of God shines even more powerfully in a persecutor like Paul of Tarsus, as we saw in the second reading. How will Christ manage to conquer even those who persecute him?
“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, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. […] Last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”
Christ appears to Paul while Paul is trying to hurt his followers. He shows Paul his greatness, which is even brighter after he is raised. Paul was well aware of his condition: “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.” But from the moment of his encounter with the risen Christ, Paul is a different man.
He knows the origin of this change: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.” The awareness of the gift he had received prompted him, out of gratitude, to commit himself even more than the other apostles: “I have worked harder than any of them,” he said, but he immediately clarified what had made his commitment possible: “It is not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
God's method is always the same: He chooses someone, a sinner like all the others, to reach the rest of mankind, who He wishes to be touched by this gift. First He shows them His glory because His task is to announce to all what He has seen and heard. All those whom he has touched have received God's grace and can bear witness to others. Are we so aware of the grace we have received? Only this new awareness in us makes us witnesses of Christ.
V Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
Notes from Julián Carrón's homily St. Bartholomew Parish, Brugherio (Mb)
