They left everything and followed him

5 SEPTEMBER (Lk 5,1-11)

The vocation of Simon in Luke’s Gospel is presented, announced on the style and model of that of Isaiah. With a small difference: Isaiah is proposed to the Lord. Simon is called by Jesus. The one and the other first gain experience the greatness of the person that is before them. Isaiah gains experience of the greatness and glory of the Lord, surrounded by the heavenly court, Simon of the greatness of the word of Jesus.

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” they cried one to the other. “All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!” And he replied: Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but you shall not understand! Look intently, but you shall know nothing! You are to make the heart of this people sluggish, to dull their ears and close their eyes; Else their eyes will see, their ears hear, their heart understand, and they will turn and be healed” (Is 6,1-10).

Like Isaiah, Simon experiences for a whole night of nothingness, his poverty, misery, incapacity to fish. He return to the shore with the empty boats. Jesus tells him to take to the deep again. He obeys. Fishing is very abundant. The nets are about to break. Other fishermen have to rush to his aid. He knows that everything is from the omnipotent word of Jesus. He is before the Holy one of God. But he is a sinner. A sinner is a sinner. He has nothing in common with the Holy one.

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus assures Simon. The Holy one of God came not to drive sinners away, but to take them into his service, to constitute them fishers of men. As the sea was empty and then it became full, so it will be with his heart. Today it is empty. It is enough that it listens to his word and it will become full, overflowing with holiness. As he obeyed for fishing, so he must obey for his life. Everything is from his obedience and from his listening.
This truth applies not only to Simon, it applies to all those who want to tighten a relationship of true missionary, apostolic and evangelizing service with Jesus. Their holiness will always be little and their hearts always empty. They will always make the experience of their smallness and fragility. A prompt, solicitous and immediate obedience to Lord Jesus will always be their wealth, their blessing, their fruiting and their daily holiness. The fruit of who serves Jesus will never be from his claimed holiness, but from his daily ready and solicitous obedience.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us obedient in everything.