My guess is that everyone here has in some way experienced a little something of what Simon Peter experienced in today’s Gospel passage. To help digest this experience, I’d like to break down the passage into six stages which correspond to six stages of spiritual growth.
Firstly, there is frustration. We’ve all experienced frustrated when things don’t go our way. For Peter and his crew, their frustration was the result of a miserable night of hard work with nothing to show for it. These were expert life-long fisherman, and it’s almost unfathomable how unsuccessful they were.
There is frustration when we exert effort and have nothing to show for it. This is true for business, or our hobbies, or our relationships. And this is true in our work for God. We set the table and nobody shows up.
But also, the self-centered life, the life centered on the false gods of the world, is frustrating, for it leaves us unhappy and empty.
But then, what happens in the Gospel. God barges into your life. Maybe in a sermon, or a book, or a powerful conversation with a friend, God shows up and asks you to trust Him. Try again, this time, trust in Me. You might imagine Peter’s confusion or annoyance, when Jesus, a carpenter, told 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.
And so you have a choice, and it might not be an easy one. Not unlike Adam and Eve in the garden, the Devil often shows up and says, “don’t trust God, his expectations are unrealistic, the consequences for disobedience probably aren’t that bad.” Doubts and confusion sometimes arise whenever it’s time to trust God. Because there’s a lot of spiritual warfare around that choice. Devils conspire against us, an angels are fighting for us.
And this raises an important question: How do we know it’s God asking us to trust Him and not the devil or our own imagination? Well, God never asks anything that violates his commands or the teachings of the Church. Jesus’ command to cast into the deep waters to the fishermen was a strange one, he was asking something that would normally never do, but he wasn’t asking them to violate a commandment.
So, yes, that little voice must be discerned. Is it coming from God or not? We certainly shouldn’t do anything that puts the welfare of our families in jeopardy—like selling your house in order to buy a bunch of lotto tickets. A good spiritual director, a fellow parishioner known for their prudence and wisdom, can help you discern. But once you discern that it is likely God asking you to trust Him, it is time for trust.
And that’s the third stage: the disciples make the choice to trust. Even though it slightly grated against their professional sensibilities, trusting his master, Peter and the crew cast out into the depths of Lake Gennesaret.
Another question: Why should we Trust God? Why should we risk wasting our time doing something potentially foolish for God? Because God loves us, he would would never fool us. Unlike the enemy, he would never deceive us. He has our best interests in mind.
Many young men considering the seminary are given this choice. To the world, even their families, entering seminary, even just for a year, is a ridiculous choice. Spend an entire year, with limited communication with family and friends, to discern something that you might not end up doing? Spend a year learning to pray instead of learning a trade?
But then something happens, and this is the fourth stage, the result of trusting in God is a miraculous catch of fish. The time in discernment, the choice to trust wasn’t wasted, for God doesn’t waste our time. It’s we that waste our time, when we only follow our own fluctuating and fleeting emotions and impulses.
I’ve never met a young man, who entered seminary even for a year, and regretted it. When you trust generously, “God will not be outdone in generosity” said Mother Theresa. There is always, at least, growth in wisdom, knowledge that will be utilized later in life. But often, God exceeds our expectations. Over and over, people who volunteer their time, engaging in ministry, say that they were blessed beyond what they ever imagined.
Notice, too, the miraculous catch wasn’t an individual effort, but a joint effort. It took the whole crew to bring in the large catch. God doesn’t just ask us to trust Him, but also others, enough to work together. Marriage is a joint effort. The mission of the parish is a joint effort. Maybe we’ve often been so frustrated because we’ve so often tried to do everything on our own, rather than as a family. But we can catch more fish together than we could on our own.
And then comes the fifth stage, after bringing in the miraculous catch, what happens? Peter falls to his knees. “Depart from me Lord, for I am sinful man”. More valuable than the miraculous catch is the recognition that you are in God’s presence. When God shows forth his generosity, we are humbled. I should have been trusting God all along, God have mercy on me. I’ve been so stupid to trust in my own will. My distrust has not brought me anything good, ever. If I had trusted just a little bit more, my life would have been so different.
And that’s the final stage: the encounter with divine grace changes you. Now that you have witnessed what God can do, the Lord says, “from now you will be catching, not fish, but men.”
St. Paul speaks about this transformation in the second reading today, the whole reading is Paul explaining how God changed his life when he came to recognize Jesus crucified and risen. Paul, remember, as a zealous Jew, had been on a crusade to wipe out the believers of Jesus. “I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” But encountering grace, in choosing to believe, Paul was transformed, and made the greatest of apostles.
As a result of trusting God, encountering his grace, we are changed, not to become wealthy or successful in the eyes of the world, but to catch souls for Christ, to work for the spread of the Gospel.
Not every Christian is called to be priest or nun or monk or miracle worker. But every Christian is called to be an evangelist, just as every Christian is called to be a saint. But the path to both vocations is identical. In the frustrations of life, we learn to trust God, and allow him to bring about a miraculous catch. And recognizing what he has done, we humbly kneel before him, and allowing that grace to transform us, He gives us what we need for the work he has planned for us.
Friends, every frustration is an opportunity to trust God. So much unhappiness and anxiety could be avoided if in our frustrations we placed our trust in Him sooner. So much boredom and sadness could be avoided, if we allowed his grace to help us realize our potential inworking for the spread of his kingdom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
