Daily Reflections

Thursday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
[434] Colossians 1:9-14
Psalm 98:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6
Luke 5:1-11

Perhaps the most important message of our readings today is contained in the Alleluia Verse, echoing the Gospel: “Come after me, says the Lord, and I will make you fishers of men.” Perhaps this jumps out at me like a trout breaking the surface of a mountain stream because I am such an avid fisherman. Is it too presumptuous of me to say that Jesus enjoyed the company of fisherpersons? At any rate, his command to Simon Peter, “Put out into deep water,” and “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men,” I believe, is addressed to us all. And so my prayer today is to ask myself, What must I do to enter the deep?

If you are like me, you are tempted daily to stay in the shallows, to stick to the familiar and the comfortable, to resist deep diving. Isn’t that why our efforts are so fruitless, even frivolous, like the apostles: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing!” Could it be the reason our apostolic labors are often so fruitless? Both in the spiritual life and in our ministerial labors, thirst is everything, depth is essential, wholeheartedness is crucial. It is true that we cannot, by ourselves, take one step up. God has to lift us up. But we can always go closer to the earth, lower, deeper, to the roots (radical) of our humanity (in suffering, compassion, solidarity, down deep into the ocean of our humanity.) There we will find not only our divine DNA, but also that of everyone else. Only there will we be true “fishers of men (and women and children).”

It is so clear: we have to “come after Him,” even as He has come after us. It’s not enough for any one of us to be the fish only, we have to also be the fisherperson. It’s not enough for us to be lost sheep found only by Him, we have to be shepherds too. Every single one of us! Isn’t that why our beloved Church is going through such a crisis right now? She is still trying to keep most of us sheep when God’s Spirit is impelling us to be shepherds!

Paul says it so very well to his sisters and brothers in Colossae, praying for those “God delivered from the power of darkness and transferred to the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son,” praying with such relentless longing and tender care, praying for us as well as for them: “that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding … in every good work bearing fruit … strengthened with every power .. . with joy giving thanks to God, Who has made us fit to share in the inheritance of the Holy ones in light.”

Let us join our prayers with his, remembering always that we have to be willing to go down into the depths, if we want to share the deep wisdom of God’s Spirit working always in all of creation!