Fr Marco Lazzaron
his Sunday’s Gospel offers us a significant moment in the life of Peter. We are at the beginning of his discipleship. It is always nice to go back to the origins, and think back to the moments in which Christ conquered us with his love. It helps to refresh the soul, to rekindle us with a healthy enthusiasm, sometimes dulled by time, by fatigue, and the sorrows of life. Even in a relationship, in a marriage, in a significant friendship it is good to think back to the origins, to the initial moments; some beautiful memories are capable of reinvigorating our strength and helping us redirect our steps in the right direction.
Peter probably already knew who Jesus was, perhaps he had already listened to him. Now Jesus enters more concretely into Peter’s life, in his boat. Jesus enters in a desperate moment of Peter’s experience. Peter and his companions were mending the nets: they didn’t catch anything that day. Jesus enters that “empty net” to fill it as only He can do. That moment of crisis will prove to be the decisive moment, the time of the greatest grace for Peter. It is worth remembering that everything started from a crisis and from a crisis everything will start again: after the death of Jesus, Peter will go back to fishing but even in that case he will not catch anything. The risen Jesus will meet him again, reiterating: “cast the nets to the right”. And when he obeyed him, the boat was filled with large fish. What we think as times of crisis, emptiness and failures are the great times of God’s possible intervention in our life!
Jesus asks Peter for an act of trust. He asks us to trust Him – a master of sacred writing, certainly not a fisherman – to set out into the deep and cast the nets on the opposite side to where they are usually cast, moreover not at night but during the day. Being with Jesus, having listened to his words, must have made him perceive that “there is something more” from Him. Therefore, he casts his nets on his word and makes an overabundant catch.
Jesus doesn’t point the finger at Peter, he doesn’t underline his failure, he just asks him for trust. We too often turn in on ourselves, feeling sorry for ourselves, blaming ourselves for what didn’t go well. Today’s Gospel tells us: let yourself be met by Christ, allow him in your boat. Let yourself be brought back to the concreteness of life, and start again from his word, setting out into the deep again. A concrete trust in Jesus and his Word, by obeying which we can allow the extraordinary of God to operate in our ordinary life, giving meaning and fullness to our daily lives.
Peter, seeing the miraculous catch, understands that he is in the presence of God. Only God could do something like this. In the encounter with the power of God Peter returns to himself in a healthy self-knowledge. Here are the characteristics of the experience of God: in the face of His greatness one feels small, poor, and sinners, and yet not crushed but loved.
Let us then ask the Lord to help us to know how to make the most of our difficult moments, allowing ourselves to be met by Him, and to follow His Word.