I found myself shaking my head at Jesus (once again…) during today’s Gospel reading.
Those poor fishermen had been out fishing all night and caught nothing. Jesus (a carpenter, you guys) told them to go out and try again.
Simon put up mild resistance, but did what Jesus asked anyways. To his great astonishment, Jesus miraculously filled their nets with fish.
Jesus didn’t just fill the nets – he filled them so much that the boats almost sank.
Now why did he go and do that? Couldn’t he give them a normal amount of fish? Why so many fish, Jesus?
I can just imagine the smirk on Jesus’ face as the fishermen are panicking, trying to keep their boats afloat, figuring out how to deal with this outrageous amount of fish.
And in the middle of the chaos, Simon falls to his knees and cries out:
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Luke 5:8
I can’t say I blame him. This isn’t your normal, daily blessing from God. This is a blessing of overabundance that brought a whole new round of trial and hardship for Simon.
What’s worse, catching no fish? Or catching so many fish your boat sinks and you lose your whole livelihood?
But the boat didn’t sink, after all.
Simon was brought to the point of self-knowledge through the extravagant blessings lavished upon him from God. And at that point, Jesus invited Simon to step into an entirely new role in life.
When the blessings of life are comfortable, we don’t have the same opportunity.
When we receive the good things of life – in just the amount we need, we can keep cruising along in the life we’re living.
It’s when we’re blessed to the point of burden that real transformation can take place.
When we receive that overabundance from God, when our vessel is full and overflowing, when we feel like we can’t absorb one more ounce of blessing, it’s then that we come face to face with just how inadequate we are.
It’s then that blessing brings the burden of our unworthiness, the knowledge of our littleness, the weight of our sinfulness. It’s then that we fall to our knees and cry out:
Enough! Depart from me, Lord!
We are on the verge of capsizing under the weight of goodness that is more than we can bear.
But Jesus says: fear not. Do not be afraid.
He knows that this blessing is too much for us. He knew it all along. But he gives us the blessing anyways. He gives us the burden, the challenge, to allow our hearts to swell to the point of breaking.
Ah, but Jesus doesn’t let us break. He doesn’t leave us floundering. He doesn’t let our little boats sink. Instead, he calms our fears:
“Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.”
Luke 5:10
When the blessings of life are too much for our frail human hearts, Jesus doesn’t pull back – like we might expect him to. Instead, he holds out the promise of greater things.
These fish that are sinking your boat: they’re not all I have in store for you.
And we step out of that boat of who we once were. And we become who we are in Christ.
We follow him more closely.
We grow in knowledge and love of him like never before.
Our lives are transformed by him, defined by him, united to him.
Jesus becomes our everything, and through him we grow. We grow in capacity to love, to give, to live the Gospel message.
We grow in capacity to leave everything behind for his sake.
No, a normal amount of fish doesn’t cut it. A comfortable blessing isn’t enough. Jesus will lavish us with the overabundance of his presence and grace in our lives.
And when that time comes, we fall to our knees at our unworthiness.
But then Jesus speaks a word. And we rise again and follow him.
#MyMassTakeaway Linkup
#MyMassTakeaway is a community building hashtag. I encourage you to use it to share your thoughts about the Mass, Eucharist, and readings every Sunday.
Check out these reflections, and head over to Instagram to join!
I love how Anni’s reflection pulls together the Sacrament of marriage,the call to holiness, and the elements of trust and sacrifice.
“Marriage requires sacrifice. But, it also requires trust. It requires us to cast our nets out into the deep end of the water, skeptical as we may sometimes be, and trust in the Lord to pull us together – and, to keep us on the straight path.”
Amy encourages us to cast out into deep waters, in spite of our sinfulness, with the knowledge of and confidence in God’s great love for us.
“And yet…. “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.” Through all my unworthiness, Christ still counts me worthy. Why? Because He loves me.”
Christine’s takeaway is so powerful. She reflects that Christ is not comfortable:
“When Jesus calls on us, what he asks of us may be extraordinarily difficult. We may feel like we’re sinking in the midst of that calling… But if we trust in Him, we’ll make it through and find something infinitely greater than what we were holding to in the first place.”
