For the Fifth Sunday

We are fishers of men

Two weekends ago, there were baptisms celebrated in this parish; today, we will once again welcome children into the community of the faithful.  We will pour water on their heads, and we will speak words of welcome and blessing.  Those are the parts of this moment of mystery that we can see and comprehend, but there is a deeper reality that is unfolding as the Sacrament of Baptism is celebrated: at some level of intimacy far beyond the level of human words, Jesus offers an invitation, like he did when he got into the boat.

Each of us have heard this invitation whispered to us since the day of our baptism too: Do you mind putting out a little way from the shore?  Presumably, Simon had watched as Jesus had approached, and as the crowd had followed.  I wonder whether Simon jumped at the opportunity to help or whether he had grumbled; after all, he and his companions had been out fishing all night and had only recently returned to shore.  Yet, the scriptures tell us that he did eventually welcome this new passenger aboard and that he did pull away from the shore, just a little bit. 

Our lives in faith are like this too: from the day of our baptism and as we continue to grow in faith, Jesus invites us to put out a little way from the shore.  Little by little, he invites us to trust in him.  Children learn to trust because they too test the waters.  Only when they have done so, and know that they can rely on their parents to always be there, to love them, to laugh with them, to praise them, to challenge them, and most of all to believe in them, will they truly feel secure.  Our relationship with Jesus is the same: only when we have tested it will we come to believe that he loves us beyond our own limits and capacities.  Only when we have learned to play in the shallow waters just a little way from shore will we be willing and able to venture into the deeper water.

Jesus too tests our willingness to give of ourselves, to be generous with our talents, to be willing to use our gifts in order to help him.  He begins with simple tests, and if we are willing to give of ourselves, he is willing to reward us in ways we cannot begin to comprehend.

Isaiah the prophet knew the power of this encounter with God.  Paul, the disciple to the gentiles also experienced this invitation.  We hear today the testimony that he gives to the Christian community at Corinth: I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received.  From the day of our baptism, we are invited to learn, to experience for ourselves the truth that Jesus Christ once came from heaven to live among us.  Out of love for us, he died for our sins … and was buried, and even more astonishingly, he rose from the dead.

In just a few days’ time, we will begin the discipline of Lent.  This period of preparation for the celebration of Easter is a gift to the Church: an opportunity for all of us to deepen our understanding and our appreciation for the gift of our baptism, for the gift that is entrusted to us when Jesus invites each of us to let go of our own insecurities and to put out a little way from the shore.  This is an invitation to live as true disciples, an opportunity for us to test and to be tested, an opportunity for us to allow ourselves to grow in our willingness and our ability to trust, an opportunity for us to love and to be loved by the One who is the author of love.

in return for our willingness to follow him, Jesus invites us to put out into the deep water: to grow slowly but constantly in faith.  Discipleship is a call to love and to be loved, to trust and to be entrusted with a great treasure which we in turn must pass on to others.  We do this by following in the footsteps of the One who invited the disciples to leave their fishing nets behind and to spend their lives inviting men and women to follow Jesus, the one who invites us and leads us to an ever deepening relationship with our God.