Brief synopsis of the readings: We begin back with Isaiah and how he answered God’s call. Isaiah saw the Lord on his throne and was overwhelmed as “I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.” But a seraphim (angel) touched Isaiah’s mouth with a burning ember and his “wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” When the Lord asked who should he send, Isaiah asked to be sent. Luke’s Gospel describes Jesus boarding a boat on Lake Gennesaret and teaching from the boat. His disciples had been out the previous night but had not caught any fish. Jesus then asked them to row out to deeper water and cast their nets. Simon Peter told Jesus they had been fishing all night with no results but that they would do as he said. However this time they filled the nets with fish and signaled another boat to come and that boat also caught enough fish that their nets were at the point of tearing. Overcome, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees and said: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Jesus replied: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

I have to confess something: I’ve only been fishing a few times in my life and I’ve generally found them to be unpleasant experiences, and that was for sport. I can’t imagine trying to make a living doing this and I’m always wary that I’ll miss the subtle points of what the scene describes. If anyone readings this is an experienced in this field, be gentle with me.

That said, I’ve always been struck that you always have to find the fish. Unlike a farmer, who knows where his crops grow, a fisherman knows where the fish might be, or where they normally are, but they can never be certain. It appears from the Gospel that nobody was surprised that their night’s work came up empty. It’s a life of constant looking and hoping.

So what made Jesus so successful that the catch nearly sank two boats? If it was simply a matter of having “water penetrating sight” or superhuman knowledge of the fish, well that would hardly tell us anything. But if the fish are a metaphor for possible disciples, we may have something. It’s interesting that Jesus taught the crowds from a boat in shallow water but then asked to be taken to deeper water. The Gospels give us a few examples of Jesus teaching in this way and they at least give the impression of being successful. So perhaps he was using the same techniques to attract the fish. I don’t want to push this too far because, well, the fish died in the end. But I like the image of the fish coming closer to the boat because Jesus is there.

The point of the story isn’t just that Jesus was able to attract the fish; that wouldn’t include a role for us too. I think this was an example of Jesus showing his followers that they, too, can attract fish. And I think this is one of the few times Simon Peter “got it.” Unlike our first reading when Isaiah basically asked for the job as a prophet, Peter felt overwhelmed by the idea that he could “fill the nets to the point of tearing.”

Both Isaiah and Peter experience some sort of cleansing and preparation. That’s a crucial point. We don’t become effective followers of our own accord but in responding an invitation. And for all the bumbling that Simon Peter does in the Gospels, he becomes the leader of the Twelve after Jesus’ resurrection.

Almost without fail when I speak of this, people demure and feel inadequate. But when it comes to attracting people to our faith we can rely much, much more on having been chosen by Jesus than on our own abilities. We don’t need to be conversant in Scripture or exceedingly clever. All it really takes is responding in a world in dire need of Jesus’ message. We see countless opportunities around us if we only pay attention.

It doesn’t mean we have to go door to door or dress up in funny outfits at the airport. It doesn’t mean we have to take every opportunity to say: “Have you accepted Jesus Christ?” In past homilies I’ve suggested that we celebrate our discipleship by random (and sometimes determined) acts of kindness. That’s true but as I read the signs of the times I’m struck that we are also in need of the hope that Jesus promises.

I find that ourselves in a world that often seems apocalyptic where decisions we make may go awry and spell our doom. More to the point I’m finding the current political state here in the United States particularly fraught. Extremists on both sides of the political spectrum appear to claim a disproportionate share of our political discourse. They tell us we are in the “end times” and on the edge of abyss.

That’s silly. I find it hard to imagine that decisions made by good people will either outflank God’s plan for us or cause God to “pull the trigger” on some human construct for the end of the world. We’ve endured poor choices in the past and will no doubt do the same in the future but God loves us more than we can even imagine.

We don’t know what Jesus said to the crowds in the beginning of today’s Gospel but it could have been a message of hope. They all lived under Roman rule, and before that were subject to the Greeks and the Babylonians before that. They endured corrupt and selfish rulers as well as slavery and famines. In all that they endured and so will we. Jesus didn’t instruct his followers to row out to deeper water to show his greatness. He did it to show the greatness that we have within our power. Since that time we’ve lived through the Black Death in the Middle Ages and the Holocaust last century. Advances in nuclear fission have given us the power to destroy our world and we are changing the climate.

But we are a people of hope who have the power to follow Jesus and respond in love, to him and to each other. We are not all fishermen but our response to God’s love allows us to be fishers of each other.