Homily: 22nd Week of OT 2016 - Thursday - Casting into the deep

When the new millennium began, Pope John Paul II wrote a letter to the Church and used the words of Jesus to Peter from today’s Gospel.  In latin, they are “duc in altum”—“put out into the deep”. 

You might imagine Peter’s confusion or perhaps muttering under his breath, when Jesus, a carpenter, spoke those words to him, a professional fisherman, telling him how to do his job.  Peter and his crew had just fished all night and had just finished cleaning all of their equipment when Jesus instructed Peter to cast his net into deep waters. 

Even though it contradicted his professional sensibilities, trusting his master, he cast out into the depths of Lake Genesseret, and catching so many fish, they had to call for another boat to bring them all in. 

In his uncertainty, he placed his deep trust in the Lord, and that made all the difference.  Pope John Paul II, sensing the challenges the Church would face in the new millennium: failing economies, impending wars, a culture becoming bent on instant gratification and materialism, he called reminded us of the Lord’s command to Peter: to cast out into the deep, in his own person spiritual life.   If we are going to remain faithful amidst all of these worldly pressures and temptations we must seek to be ever more deeply converted to Christ, to love him ever more deeply, to drink deeply of the Holy Spirit.

In another sense, those words, “put out into deep waters” is a call to every Christian, no matter their state in life, to take up the missionary mandate of the Church: to reach out to those who do not have faith, to reach out to the poor and suffering, and to not be afraid to witness to the truth of the Gospel in the public sphere and the political realm.  Just like Peter casting out into deep waters to bring in this miraculous catch of fish, we too can make a miraculous catch, when we cooperate with Jesus. 

Where are the deep waters in your own life? Who are the fish that seem just out of reach? A fallen away family member? An angry neighbor? Who needs to be invited back to Mass…to the Confessional…to speak with the priest about an annulment…who needs to be gently confronted about an addiction or unchaste behavior?

Today and all days we must have a radical trust in the Lord, rooted in prayer, in seeking ever deeper conversion to Christ for ourselves and others for the glory of God and salvation of souls.