Woe to Me If I Do Not Preach the Gospel

Put Out Into the Deep

The calling of the first disciples of Jesus in the Gospel according to St. Luke is tremendous. Simon Peter, James, and John are astonished by their first encounter with Jesus. We hear the account in today’s Gospel:

“While the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennes′aret. 2 And he saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, 7 they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zeb′edee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” (Luke 5:1-11)

The first Pope says to Jesus that he and his fishing partners have toiled all night and caught nothing. I am sure they were exhausted and more than a little dismayed at the lack of a catch. Yet, the kindness of Peter is seen in that he does not try to argue with Jesus when He asks to borrow Peter’s boat. Jesus asked to be taken off shore in the boat to teach the people on the shore; the sea acted as a natural acoustic amplifier. So, Simon Peter heard Jesus teach and then tells Jesus their lack of good fishing fortune but decides to have faith in what Jesus says.

Jesus says: “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter is incredulous but does as he is asked anyway - showing us what Jesus can do with even the smallest response of faith, by the way! And when the nets come up they are bursting at the seams with fish!

Peter is astonished and - in true dramatic Peteresque fashion - tells Jesus “depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Jesus had every right to say: “I told you to trust me” or “see! I was right!" Instead, what does He say? He says, “Do not be afraid.” Beautiful. With even the smallest hint of faith, Jesus worked a great miracle for Peter, and Peter, in humility, acknowledges his own failings. Jesus responds with tenderness and calms Peter. St. Thomas Aquinas reports the Venerable Bede as saying this about this passage:

“But the Lord allays the fears of carnal men, that no one trembling at the consciousness of his guilt, or astonished at the innocence of others, might be afraid to undertake the journey of holiness (Catena Aurea).”

We should not be afraid of our own guilt because God is bigger than our sins. And we should not be astonished at the innocence of others because, as Mark Twain said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Instead, we follow Jesus and allow His grace to transform us more into Him.

Our Lord does not stop at calming Peter, instead He calls Peter to something great! He says, “henceforth you will be catching men.” So powerful was the charisma of our Lord and the force of their encounter with Him that they then left everything and followed Him.

We too are called to the work of evangelization today! As St. Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians: “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel (1 Cor. 9:15-17)!” There is a real urgency to this call, especially today. We cannot afford to be indifferent. As Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium: “The immense numbers of people who have not received the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot leave us indifferent (EG, 246).”

Many today believe that all religions are equal or at least essentially the same. Others say that all notions of religion are false. Some claim that all are universally saved, so there is no necessity to sharing the Gospel.

Rather, as the Second Vatican Council stated clearly:

“Divinely sent to the nations of the world to be unto them ‘a universal sacrament of salvation,’ the Church, driven by the inner necessity of her own catholicity, and obeying the mandate of her Founder (cf. Mark 16:16), strives ever to proclaim the Gospel to all men (Ad Gentes, 1).”

And lest we think that religious liberty bars us from a bold proclamation of the Gospel, the Second Vatican Council also clearly states:

“We believe that this one true religion subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus committed the duty of spreading it abroad among all men… Religious freedom, in turn, which men demand as necessary to fulfill their duty to worship God, has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society. Therefore it leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ (Dignitatis Humanae, 1).”

The necessity of sharing the Gospel is a given in the history of the Church. We cannot be indifferent. Woe to you and me if we do not preach the Gospel. The work of conversion is not ours, it is the Holy Spirit’s. But we are not saved by ourselves. We must be confident in Jesus Christ and follow His command to put out into the deep! Do not be afraid!

I’d like to end today’s short reflection with a quote attributed to St. Teresa of Avila:

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which He looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are His body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

— St. Teresa of Ávila (attributed)