The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (5:1-11)

In every gospel reading we encounter Jesus Christ, or rather we are encountered by Jesus Christ. In each and every reading or hearing of the gospel we are invited into a way of life, into a way of thinking, into the truth, into the person of Jesus Christ. This is part of the logical structure of the life of worship, the life of the liturgy. It begins with the liturgy of the word. This part of the liturgy culminates with the reading of the epistle and the gospel and the priest giving the homily on the selected readings. It is, if you will, a first taste, an appetizer before the main course. Or depending on how we receive these words of the epistle and the gospel it may in fact be that they are the first hurdles that we have to clear before we move into the liturgy of the faithful, before we move closer in proximity to our Lord Jesus Christ.

What do I mean by this? We move closer to Jesus Christ during the second half of the liturgy because we are preparing ourselves to receive the precious and holy body and blood of Jesus Christ. There is a natural movement from the outside world and nearer and nearer to the Holy of Holies. We are preparing to partake of Christ in a mystical and spiritual union. We are inviting Christ to come and dwell within us. This is why the Church teaches that one cannot miss the gospel reading and come late and then stroll up to receive Holy Communion. You are not coming to partake of mere bread and wine but Holy Fire. So we see the liturgy as a movement that begins by preparing us and refining us before we partake of this fire so that we may unite with this fire instead of having this fire burn us up.

It is interesting that in today’s gospel that there is a prerequisite to drawing closer to Jesus Christ. That prerequisite is obedience to Him. That is one of the main points of this passage. Our Lord encounters the disciples Peter and Andrew, James and John while they were fishing and after Our Lord spends some time teaching the people who were nearby, He makes a request of the disciples. He tells them to “put out into the deep” and let down their nets for a catch.” We can almost hear the exasperation in the voice of Peter as he says to Christ, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” I think passages such as this one bring the disciples to life. They were not emotionless stoics. They were real flesh and blood human beings with personalities and weaknesses and they were not perfect. If we were perfect, Our Lord would not have become man and dwelt with us. He came precisely in order to perfect us.

Now Peter is frustrated and there is a lot of work involved with going back out into the deep waters and letting down the nets again. He is exhausted and he’s been up all night. Some of our young mothers may know the feeling. Sometimes we feel like Peter. We feel that God is asking us to do things that frustrate us, things that are difficult. Let there be no doubt that sometimes God will ask us to do things that seem difficult if not impossible. Make peace with that. But let us see how Peter responded.

He said, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Thy word I will let down the nets.” I am in awe of his humility and his obedience to the Lord. In order to be truly obedient, one has to be humble. In Peter’s mind, Jesus of Nazareth may have been a holy man, but He knew nothing about fishing. Yet Peter was obedient because he understood that Jesus was at the very least, a prophet and he wanted to show respect to him. This sense of respect has sadly been lost in much of this generation. Parents, please teach your children to be respectful. It will serve them well in their lives.

Peter was obedient even though he had no particular reason to be. What he comes to find out is that his small act of obedience will be greatly rewarded. It was his humble obedience that unlocked the very mysteries of the kingdom of God. It was his humble obedience that brought him closer to our Lord. We can see his obedience as an act of faith. Because obedience requires faith and it implies faith. He believed the word of the Lord Jesus without asking for proof of any kind. He did so without arguing.

Throughout the Christian tradition we are often directed to the virtue of obedience in the Christian life.

We are reminded that the fall of Adam and Eve and all of humanity and creation came through the first disobedience. And through that disobedience man fell from a great height and was cast out of paradise and found himself far away, hiding from God. You’ll notice how this is the opposite movement that we described in the liturgy. In the life of sin we start with disobedience and then we begin to distance ourselves from God or whatever is a vehicle of His Godliness. Instead of moving closer to the Holy, we move further and further away until we become non-existent. It is the natural regression because our personhood and our existence is directly connected with our proximity to the God who is I AM, the One who exists, the existing One.

Thankfully we see the exact opposite here in this reading. Obedience was the test and the first reward was to spend the next three years in paradise, every second with the Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Becoming initiated into the divine apostolic life. This was their reward for obedience. And they had to be obedient, not once, not twice, but daily. There were days when they fell away as we remember that Peter denied Our Lord and wept. Yet, he returned quickly to resume the life of obedience, the life of faith or faithfulness. But it all started with small acts of obedience, and this in time became the seeds for great virtue within the apostles and for everyone who follows their example. If we should be obedient in the small things, as St. Peter was that day in the boat, how much more obedient should we be to the commandments of the Lord? My brothers and sisters, let there be no doubt that our obedience to Jesus Christ, to His commandments, and to the teachings of Christ’s very body, the Church, will be an entry point and a foundation to great blessings and treasures for each one of you. God knows what you need more than you know or can comprehend. He will provide for you as a good Father.

Finally, I want to leave you with one of the stories of the desert fathers regarding this practice of obedience. “It was said of Abba John the Dwarf that he withdrew and lived in the desert at Scetis (Egypt) with an old man of Thebes. His abba, taking a piece of dry wood, planted it and said to him, ‘Water it every day with a bottle of water, until it bears fruit.’ Now the source of the water was so far away that he had to leave in the evening and return the following morning. At the end of three years the wood came to life and bore fruit. The old man took some of the fruit and carried it to the church saying to the brethren, ‘Take and eat the fruit of obedience.’ Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons