20160901 THINKING OUT OF THE BOX IS TO PUT INTO THE DEEP
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Corinthians
3:18-23 ©
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Make no mistake about
it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the
word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why?
Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The
Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are; or again: God
is not convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to boast
about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the
present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and
Christ belongs to God.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 23:1-6 ©
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The Lord’s is the
earth and its fullness.
The Lord’s is the
earth and its fullness,
the world
and all its peoples.
It is he who set it
on the seas;
on the
waters he made it firm.
The Lord’s is the
earth and its fullness.
Who shall climb the
mountain of the Lord?
Who shall
stand in his holy place?
The man with clean
hands and pure heart,
who
desires not worthless things.
The Lord’s is the
earth and its fullness.
He shall receive
blessings from the Lord
and
reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who
seek him,
seek the
face of the God of Jacob.
The Lord’s is the
earth and its fullness.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.2Thess2:14
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Through the Good News
God called us
to share the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Mt4:19
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Follow me, says the
Lord,
and I will make you
into fishers of men.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 5:1-11 ©
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Now Jesus was
standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him
listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the
bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got
into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a
little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he
had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out
your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long
and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they
had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to
tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help
them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When
Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I
am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the
catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were
Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is
men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left
everything and followed him.
THINKING
OUT OF THE BOX IS TO PUT INTO THE DEEP
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ 1
COR 3:18-23; LK 5:1-11 ]
We are
constantly challenged to think out of the box; to dare to do things
differently. It is not good enough to maintain the status quo, even if we
are doing well. This is true for evangelization and our pastoral ministry as
well. But doing things differently involves taking risks, which many of us are
averse to, because we lack creativity, or courage, or worse still, because of
complacency or inertia. So we maintain the same old routine, the same old
approaches, flogging the same old team, and playing by the same old rules. And
of course we get disheartened, because we seem to be working a lot harder, day
and night, and yet we seem to be getting nowhere. As if this is not bad enough,
we pour cold water on the initiatives of those who try to do things
differently, or introduce new programmes in an effort to revitalize our
parishes or those groups under our charge. This explains why we are not
growing, if not lagging behind.
The
gospel tells us that we must, like St Peter, be willing to put out into the
deep. This is the advice of Jesus. We are to take risks. St
Peter was invited to do just that. He was asked to go beyond
discipleship, to be an apostle. It is within this context that today’s
gospel speaks of Peter’s call to be Christ’s apostle in the proclamation of the
kingdom.
What is
it that truly prevents us from taking risks? The primary obstacle is
pride. St Peter thought he knew all there was to know about fishing. And
he thought that he had tried everything already, and there was no fish, so how
could he accept that Jesus knew any more than he did. Indeed, oftentimes
we refuse to open our minds to learning from others, because we think we know
best. Pride makes us self-sufficient and leads us to think highly of ourselves.
Without humility, we cannot learn from others. But as St Paul says, “Make
no mistake about it: if any one of you who thinks of himself as wise, in the
ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really
can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to
God. As scripture says: “The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how
useless they are: or again: God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise.”
This
was the same problem facing the Christians in Corinth. They were clinging
to Paul, Apollos and some leaders. As a result, the community became sectarian,
each group seeing the others as competitors rather than collaborators.
Yet, Paul made it clear that they were not to be idolized because all that they
had came from God. They were mere servants and instruments for the Lord.
There is nothing to boast about except the grace of God. St Paul says,
“So there is nothing to boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas,
the world, life and death, the present and the future, are all your servants;
but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.”
However,
pride can also be manifested in the fear of failure. We do not want to
make mistakes. We like to play safe and not get into trouble, especially
with our superiors. Too much is at stake. Superiors are also partly
to be blamed when subordinates do not take initiatives. Our subordinates
might perceive that we do not wish to rock the boat or change the status
quo. We are not open to new ways of doing things. For this reason,
we produce mediocre leaders and subservient subordinates, without any
creativity or zeal.
However,
it was faith that saved Peter. He put out into the deep and the miracle
of the fish happened. It was so overwhelming an experience. We are
told that “… he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch
they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s
partners.” We too are called to trust in the Lord and take the risk. We
are called to surrender our lives to Him so that He can work miracles in our
lives. Faith is to believe in the impossible. Faith is to trust in the
inspiration of God. Only when we surrender, can God work miracles in us.
How can this faith be
nurtured? Let us take a look at Peter. We are told that he was exposed to
the ministry and person of Jesus. He had witnessed how Jesus healed his
mother-in-law and many who were sick. But observation is not
sufficient. He was not yet ready to be more than a disciple of
Jesus. He saw the miracles, but was not converted from within, because it
was not his personal conversion.
However
in today’s incident, although Peter seemed to be disinterested when Jesus was
preaching to the crowd, in truth, he was not simply hearing the teaching of Jesus.
He was contemplating all that Jesus said and did. Whilst listening to
Jesus’ preaching, he must have been recollecting all the things that Jesus had
said and how He acted in His relationship with sinners, the poor and how He
healed the sick. He must have been contemplating deeply the message of
Jesus for him as well. He was no traditionalist. He was breaking the
rules and the customs. He was not a slave to convention, but would reinterpret
the practices and teachings more radically. We too are called to
contemplate how Jesus was always acting and thinking out of the box. We
must understand how Jesus was able to challenge the norms of His time. He
must have drawn courage from His faith in His Father.
This
reflection prepared Peter for the miraculous catch. By listening to the
teaching of Jesus, Peter gradually gained faith in Jesus. Indeed, the
miracle happened because of Peter’s act of faith. Through faith, Peter
came to a profound experience of God and subsequently discovered himself, his
pride and sinfulness. Before Jesus, he recognized the divinity of Christ
in Jesus. Thus, “when Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus
saying, ‘Leave me Lord; I am a sinful man.’“ In that personal experience,
which came from contemplation and wonder, he found and experienced the presence
of God. It was beyond his imagination that God would take him personally
and speak to him in such a personal way.
With
that conversion, he was called to proclaim Jesus to the world. He was
ready to take risks in being His apostle, knowing that it would not be his
strength but the power of God. From that experience, he knew the Lord
would work through him. He knew nothing is impossible for God to
work. From that moment, “Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now
on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land,
they left everything and followed him.”
We too,
if we are to be true apostles of Christ and ready to take the risk of
proclaiming the gospel in and out of season, without fear and with boldness,
then we must encounter Jesus in a personal manner. We need to pray for a
conversion experience, which entails a rediscovery of the mercy and love of God
in Jesus for us, bringing about our personal transformation in the way we look
at life. It is this surprising advent of God’s grace into our lives that
empowers us to proclaim the gospel as such – Good News – in a new, creative and
dynamic manner.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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