Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch (Luke 5:4).
The account of The Call of Simon the Fisherman from the Gospel of Luke [Luke 5:1-11] is one of my favourite bible stories because I find I can l place myself in the scene and relate to the language and imagery used. This gospel passage relates that Jesus noticed two boats along the shore of Lake Gennesaret and that the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Jesus asked them to put out their nets for a catch, but they were reluctant, because as Simon pronounced “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing”. But after agreeing to the request of Jesus the fishermen were amazed for “they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing”. Luke, the gospel writer, recounts that “when they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.”
The words “Put out into the deep and lower your nets for a catch” resonate with me as I like to spend a lot of time around water, and I often see fishermen casting their nets in the hope of landing a plentiful catch. I am also moved by the Latin translation of the words of “Put out into the deep”, “Duc in Altum“, which was an expression used frequently by St. John Paul II, particularly in his Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, published at the beginning of the new millennium. He remarked that “These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm and to look forward to the future with confidence”.
Praying with this bible passage has helped me to trust in God and go deeper into my spiritual life. In 2011-12 I had the great blessing of giving a year of my life to plunge into a personal relationship with Jesus through attending the Emmanuel School of Mission, a Rome-based project that prepared young people to be Catholic missionaries. This was such a fresh and invigorating experience for me. It was the best year in my life, and it taught me many things. It was a year to open up to others, to broaden my horizons, a year of healing and growth, and a year to put God at the centre. Even now I often find myself in recollection on how happy I was living in a commited faith community at that time. There were no distractions such as my mobile phone or TV. It was so much easier to find time for silence, personal prayer and reflection and that experience taught me how to to be really present to others and to see them as a brother or sister in Christ. It also gave me the a much greater appreciation of the gift of life and of the importance of living in the present moment and living each day to the full.
I have always believed in following my dreams. I definitely felt a call from God in my heart to attend the Emmanuel School of Mission, and being accepted on the programme and receiving so much support from donors and sponsors, as well as prayerful support, was a confirmation of that call. Since making that ‘Duc in Altum’, God has led me on some amazing adventures in my life. While there also have been times of disappointment, trauma and loss, my desire to have a personal relationship with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, in contemplative prayer, by reading the bible, and by availing of the healing sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation has sustained my life and given me inner healing and peace.
God bestows on each of us a special dignity as his beloved sons and daughters. We are cherished and he has a purpose and a plan for all our lives. Just as God made a covenant with his people throughout salvation history, Jesus points the way, through his life on earth, to the path of holiness, the path of communion with God. When questioned by one of the Pharisees he pronounced that the greatest commandment for living the Christian life is “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…The second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:38-39).
The second commandment puts an onus on Christians to love those they encounter in their daily life in the same way that they love themselves. Recently I have been reflecting more on this exhortation of Jesus. I find that I am sometimes hard on myself and this teaching of Jesus reminds me that in the same way that I love and care for my family and friends, and reach out to be a neighbour to those I encounter; I am to show love and compassion to myself, especially when I am not true to my faith and fail to live the Christian life according to the commandments of God. It is at these times that I find the reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation of particular help in putting my conscience at ease. When I confess my sins and receive absolution from the priest, it is like the feeling that I have after taking a shower. I feel restored in God’s unconditional love having experienced his mercy and healing, and I remember the dignity which God bestows on me, made in his image and likeness.
The Christian life is a radical call towards holiness and loving in all situations, but I think it is important to remember that none of us are perfect. However, each of us, by following the Christian path, can make a positive difference in our own way and make a mark in the world in which we live. That essentially is what making a ‘Duc in Altum’ today is about – choosing to be present to our neighbour by reaching out to others in acts of kindness and love and witnessing to the hope which faith brings – death is not the end, merely a transition to encountering the living God in the eternal peace and happiness of heaven.
