Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus was at the lakeside of Gennesaret, and He got into one of the fishing boats so that He could teach the crowds that had gathered to listen to Him. When Jesus had finished teaching, He told Peter to put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. Peter replied that they had worked hard all night and caught nothing, but nonetheless, he would do as Jesus told him.
That was a polite reply from Peter, but there was also a tone of underlying protest as he said that he had worked hard all night and caught nothing. And he would have quietly scoffed at the fact that a preacher would tell a fisherman how to catch fish. That was like crossing the line. But Peter did as Jesus told him, maybe because the crowd was watching, and there was nothing to gain from arguing or protesting. At least Peter was smart enough to know that. And with that astounding, huge catch of fish, Peter was brought to his knees.
Addressing Jesus as “Lord,” Peter realized that there are things in this world that are beyond logic and reason. He may know all about fishing, but that does not mean that the fish are going to listen to him and do what he wants. Peter was humbled, and kneeling before Jesus, he acknowledged that he was a sinner. This also implied that he had thought that what Jesus said to him earlier was absurd. But now, he knew he was wrong.
The Gospel passage teaches us that, as much as we are endowed with intelligence and knowledge, that doesn’t mean we know everything, or that we can decipher the ways of God. What God wants from us is quite clear: to be humble, to be obedient, to be faithful to Him, and to love and respect others.
Therefore, no matter how clever or intelligent we are, people do not care about what we know until they know that we care about them. Let us use our intelligence and knowledge to speak to others in a way that they would love to listen to us. And may we also listen to others in a way that they would love to speak to us. Can we do that?
Fr. Aegidius Warsito, SCJ