1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Psalm 23; Luke 5:1-11
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Jesus figuratively catches Peter in His net before commanding him to “catch men” for the Kingdom of God. Attention please; the primary mandate of our vocation is to be fishers of men and not fishermen. Men are getting drowned in this world of sin. It is the mission of the Church and all of us to lead them to salvation. This mission and vocation demand that each of us like in Luke 5:3-4 to “put out a little away from the land” in order to “put out into the deep water”. This is why we are in Church. In the Church, we are set apart for impart; we are set apart us to learn how to throw our net very well for a great catch. Again, to have a great catch we must cultivate a deep interior life because like Simon we may have the tendency to give up in the face of failures. Again, most times we claim to be masters of our fields and ignore the directives of Christ. Simon an expert in fishing listened to Jesus’ directives. Paul says in the first reading, that when it comes to Christ’s message it is foolish to pretend to be wise or to understand it all we must have confidence in God. Every one of us needs direction, irrespective of our expertise. Through spiritual direction we cultivate our interior life to always listen to Jesus to be able to stand the failures and challenges in mission.
St. Gregory the Great whose memorial we celebrate today maintained a humble sense of mission as a servant and pastor of souls. He saw himself as the “servant of the servants of God.” He was the first of all Popes to popularize the now-traditional Papal title, which referred to Christ’s command that those in the highest position of leadership should be “the last of all and the servant of all.” He worked tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church’s spreading influence in Western Europe. Through his prayers may we always have the right disposition towards our missionary mandate. Amen.
