In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Sunday 10 February 2019

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C

Word for today
The Gospel of Luke 5:1-11

Distance yourself

Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.
It is the perfect description of the condition of man who labors tirelessly in the darkness of ignorance and fear, with no results, no peace, no real fruit of well-being, without harmony or even a glimmer of faith or  desire still burning:  but at your command I will lower the nets.
The fishing is unsuccessful because the fishermen's experience is no substitute for lack of faith in divine procedures, that way of doing things which guarantees fish, fruit, and results according to God's wishes.
Put out, Jesus says, literally distance yourself toward the deepDistance yourself from the way of thinking which narrows your desires under the pressure of fear and failure and which considers life a mad river in which we can only try to swim struggling against fate, trying to avoid accidents, fighting to stay afloat and to survive by competing without freedom and joy.
Distance yourself from the way of thinking that believes we can achieve results and fruit thanks to our efforts and duty and not to the joy and passion we put into doing things. Distance yourself from the shore of conventions and habits which taught us to desire little, without vision, incapable of loving true prosperity and well-being. Distance yourself from the image that others have of you, the image you want others to have of you, the image you have of yourself, the image you want to have of yourself, from your and others' expectations. Distance yourself from the shore of fashions, cultures, customs, ideologies that teach and force people to be and to remain poor, needy, always on the edge, competing. Distance yourself from the deepest part of your soul, of your being, where the Lord within your veins and spirit wrote His wishes, your character, your divine identity, His image and likeness.
Distance yourself from the image and move closer to the Image. Distance yourself from image worship to enter the depths of God's divine Image within you.
Distance yourself from wanting to look like someone else and begin to love and honor your deep similarity with God.
After centuries and millennia of
exhausting, fruitless nights Jesus reveals to a fisherman, Peter, who will become the foundation stone of this extraordinary Announcement, the sure way to collect all the good, the nobility, the beauty which we are made of and to which we belong.
Peter and his companions
caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. Here is God's regality, here is abundance without measure, in accordance with the measure and power of our desire.
In Jesus' miracles, the Gospel
text always underlines the abundance and completeness of the gift. This is to show that the real miracle is not only God's intervention, but also the desire of man who, moving in tune with God's desire, moves and unveils the infinite power of divine energy which makes everything exist.