5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Sunday 9 February 2025
Lk 5,1-11

“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break”
(Lk 5,4-6)

This is the famous episode of the “duc in altum” (put out into the deep), featuring Jesus and Simon Peter. Peter had spent the entire night fishing with his companions but caught nothing. While he was washing his nets by the lake shore, he saw Jesus surrounded by a crowd—the same Jesus who, some time earlier, had entered his house and healed his mother-in-law in Capernaum. Peter doesn’t make a fuss or go out of his way. He continues to work, not hiding his disappointment at the failed night’s fishing. Jesus, wanting to address the people “comfortably”, gets into Peter’s boat, sits down, and asks him to push out a little from the shore. We don’t know exactly what Jesus taught in that sermon, but it was likely a motivational message aimed at inspiring trust in God and in the Master Himself. And given that words must be followed by action, Jesus concludes His sermon with a challenge to Simon: “Put out into the deep and cast your nets”. The challenge includes two imperatives: one singular, directed at Peter as the leader, and one plural, addressed to the other fishermen. Peter is personally challenged. He cannot delegate it to anyone else. The decision is his, and the outcome depends on it. Simon’s response is emblematic, and there’s a ‘but’, a contrasting particle that makes all the difference. It is true that Jesus’ command seems absurd and nonsensical, BUT…
It goes against all the rules of fishing, BUT…
The son of a carpenter, Jesus knows nothing about fish or fishing, BUT…: “but at Your word I will let down the nets”.
This “BUT” is the fruit of Jesus’ motivation to ‘have faith!’
The success of our endeavours does not depend so much on circumstances, but on the presence of Jesus in our boat (family, work, ministry, etc.) and listening to His Word. In other words, doing the same things but in communion with the One who makes the difference: Jesus.
And we will be witnesses to the miracle!

Fr. Giuseppe