"Let down your nets..."

[Jesus] said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men."

- St. Luke 5:4-11

The disciples were tired. They had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. Now, in the daytime, it was the wrong time to fish, but Jesus told them to let their nets down into the water, so they did. And the catch was so large that the nets were strained to a breaking point.

We know St. Peter as the Rock, the great martyr, the powerful witness to the truth of Christ’s resurrection. But as we see in this passage from the Gospel, he wasn’t always that way. His roots were in the life of a simple fisherman. He was unlettered and ordinary. He knew his own sinfulness when he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” But when Christ directed him, he listened, and as a result of doing what the Lord told him, he was made a “fisher of men” and the Rock on which Christ founded His Church.

Just as Christ called Simon Peter and the other disciples, so He calls each one of us, even in our weakness, to use the particular gifts He has given us, so that we can leave a mark on the world around. Each one of us can be an instrument of God within our immediate surroundings, within our family, within our circle of friends and acquaintances. With each good example we give, with each prayer we offer, with each act of kindness, we can accomplish great things by following the instructions our Lord gave to St. Peter: “Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.”

That’s all we have to do. Simply let down our nets. We need to use our gifts where we are. God has already provided the net, in the gifts He has given to each of us. They may seem like small, simple gifts – the gift of taking the time to lend a helping hand to someone; the gift of praying for someone in need; the gift of speaking a kind word to someone who needs some encouragement; the gift of living a life guided by Gospel values. All those things, and more, make up the net God gives us. All we need to do is to let down that net into the world around us, and the words our Lord spoke to Simon Peter will be words spoken to us: "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men."

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Pictured: "The Miraculous Draught of Fishes"

by Raphael (1483-1520)