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1 Corinthians 3:18-23
Luke 5:1-11
I suppose if we asked Peter, the apostle, if he were wise, he probably would say he wasn’t. He didn’t have the learned wisdom that people who taught school had. But he certainly knew a thing or two about fishing. When the fish weren’t biting or couldn’t be found, it was time to pack up your nets and head for shore. Don’t waste your time in the dark.
That’s what he was doing when Jesus got into his boat and said “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Peter replied, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”
Of course they made a great catch of fish, so many that their boat almost sank and they needed help from another boat to bring them all in.
Jesus challenged Peter’s everyday wisdom, the kind that comes from hard-headed realism. Peter’s wisdom was the wisdom of experience. We call it the best teacher, but sometimes experience can be wrong. Where it tells us to expect nothing, treasure may be hiding there.
As we go out into our day today, we guided by our experience. “Same old, same old,” we may say as we go through the day’s routine. “Nothing here today.” But maybe there is, if we see life with the wisdom of God. Maybe there’s a catch to be made.
Fr. Victor Hoagland, CP is the Director of Passionist Press and a member of the Passionist Community in Union City, NJ
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We sometimes think we will only meet God in the sacred places or books or experiences. Indeed they might be privileged places that prepare us to meet God.
But Peter met Jesus in his own boat and that made all the difference for the rest of his life. Maybe we need to think more creatively about where God is each day as go about our ordinary life.