The Call of Peter: Trusting in God's Plan

02-09-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Albert

We read in today's Gospel, the call comes to Peter in the context of Jesus' preaching to a crowd eagerly pressing around to hear the word of God. Peter helps Jesus by allowing him to use his boat to avoid the crush of the crowd. One has the impression that Peter himself is not even listening to the sermon. He's busy with his fisherman's task of washing the nets.

Jesus has further plans for Peter. He doesn't call him immediately to a new way of life but challenges him precisely in his own area of expertise: catching fish. Peter resists, perhaps thinking to himself, "What does this fellow know about fishing?" Eventually, he does go along with Jesus' instruction to put out and try for a catch. The catch of immense proportions that results, where all night there had been no fish, becomes for Peter a sign of the presence and power of God. The conversion he undergoes is profound; "Leave me, Lord, I am a sinful man."

The call of Peter told in the Gospel follows this pattern closely. It is just when Peter recognizes that he is confronted with the presence of God in Jesus, when he owns his own sinfulness and unworthiness to be associated with Him, that the call comes to him; "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." Only those who have plumbed the depths of their own sinfulness and unworthiness will come to "know" both God and themselves.

The boat overladen with fish - too many for Peter's boat but for "the other boat" as well - becomes symbolic of the Church. Founded on the ministry of Peter and the other Apostles and obedient to the command of Jesus, the Church will brim with "fish" caught for His kingdom.

The actual Greek word Luke uses for "catching" bears some examination. When people catch fish, whether for livelihood or for leisure, the fish necessarily end up dead. Luke seems to be sensitive to this negative implication in the "fishing" image. What Jesus means by catching men is to catch "alive." The language wonderfully conveys the sense of "capturing" people with the word and bringing them to a more abundant life in the kingdom of God.

Fr. Albert