Fifth Sunday of Year C - 7th February 2010

Launch out into the Deep

"'If you don't speculate, you can't accumulate" is a familiar business slogan. In short, if you don't take risks, you don't succeed. If you play it too safe, opportunity passes you by. This is true not only in business but in life itself and in our dealings with God. When Jesus tells them to cast the nets, Peter the realist says: "Forget it." But Peter-the dreamer, the adventurer-says: "Why not? You never can tell what may happen." So Peter and his men take a chance, and they strike it rich.

Jesus worked a miracle that day because Peter let him. Peter trusted Jesus and took a chance. If Peter hadn't opened himself up to a new experience, nothing would have happened. The spirit of trust made all the difference. It was always this way with Jesus. Over and over again in the gospels, when the blind and the lame and the sick were cured, he told them their faith had made them whole. When people closed themselves off through scepticism or fear, he could not do anything for them. This sort of thing still goes on today.

When it dawned on Peter that he was in the presence of a mysterious, awesome power, he was afraid, and cried out, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." He sounds like Isaiah in the first reading: "Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" This is the way people sometimes feel about God. They are so aware of their shortcomings, they can't imagine God wanting to have anything to do with them. To Peter, and to everyone who has ever felt this way, Jesus says, "Do not be afraid." This catch of fish is nothing compared to what you will do later. The call to take a risk is matched by the promise 'Do not be afraid.'

The lesson is clear. Though we are weak, we must never hesitate to act or speak for Christ. Our lips are cleansed in baptism and through confirmation we are sent to speak and act in Christ's name.

Let's pray to have such a faith; to have the courage to move when called; to set out into deeper waters; to try again even when it feels futile. In a world that demands perfection as a prerequisite for credibility, remember that it is not the world, but the Lord, Creator and Saviour who has confidence in you.