Don’t miss the boat

5th Sunday Ordinary Time – C

To treat today’s Gospel passage as a springboard for a talk on vocations would be to miss the boat, pun intended. The call of Peter, James, and John gives us so much more to ponder if we go further into the “deep water” of this passage.

Luke’s version of the call of the disciples is the only one that includes the abundant catch of fish. This contrasts with Peter and his companion’s overwhelming failure at doing their job the night before. No wonder Jesus could simply hop into Peter’s conveniently empty boat to teach the crowd!

Peter and his friends didn’t show much talent for fishing, yet that’s exactly what Jesus will call them to do. Jesus wasn’t looking for fishers; he was looking for followers. He wasn’t searching for successful people who were fine without him but people who would let him work through them. He needed those who would cast aside their control, lower their defensiveness about what they thought they understood, and, dismissing every reason to give up, simply try again at the Spirit’s command.

Everyone baptized into Christ receives the same call to draw others into God’s life-saving embrace. How that call is heard and heeded depends not on our abilities but on our will to let God use our inadequacy to be the space where the Spirit can act.

This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”

Image credit: Photo by Quangpraha from pixabay.

Read more reflections on the Sunday readings here:

• Prune our hearts
• Heed and follow
• New life in Christ
• Now what?
• We are Loved and Longed For