FAUSTI - The crowd pours over Jesus to hear the Word of God on the seashore. Jesus stands before this people ready for listening and for exodus: He is like the shepherd who gathers the sheep to lead them to pasture. The disciples are already on the boat from where Jesus speaks. This boat is figure of the Church, a small community that floats on the abyss and makes its exodus. It is already the point of arrival of His mission, so He sits down and from there He turns to others ones who are still on the shore. Peter received from Jesus the commission to drive the boat offshore. The fishing represents the Apostolic mission that begins now, and that will extend very far, to the ends of the earth. They are out in the open, after a night of useless toil, and experience, in obedience to His Word, the abundance of the fruits of the promised blessing.The nets that the Apostles drop, St. Ambrose suggestively says in his commentary, are the announcement made of interweaving of words, widening of speech and depth of answers that take in their mesh and do not lose those who are taken. They do not kill those who are caught there, but they keep them alive, they draw them from the depths to the light and from the depths they lead those who were submerged to the surface. How many times they had lowered their nets unnecessarily! That same night they had taken nothing. The order of Jesus, addressed to professional fishermen, seems a little offensive, as well as senseless. Do they not know their profession well and Isn' t at night that they fish? They will have to understand that it is not by force and will that they act, and that action is fruitful precisely during the day, because they obey the "sun" that has arisen to illuminate those who were previously in darkness and in the shadow of death. The vain fatigue of the night indicates the futility of all human efforts made by their own will to establish the Kingdom of God. Because it is of God! Obedience to the Word of the Lord, whose power they have heard and seen, is the only reason to hope for the impossible that it promises to those who obey. Faith has no other support. It bears the infallible and overflowing fruit of this fishery, which exceeds all human expectation and ability. The nets almost break because they are unable to contain the realization of the promise, which is superior to any fame, but nothing is lost! In addition to Peter's boat there is also another boat associated with fishingboth are filled, symbol of God's blessing, to the point of sinking,, but they do not sink. Before the Truth of God and His gift of mercy, man discovers his own truth. Peter feels far away - that's why he tells Him to get away from him - and he sees himself lost: he knows that he is not what he must be and he feels unworthy. There isn't a revelation of God without awareness of one's own sin. His infinite majesty is known at the same time that we know our infinite lowliness, and only by this. Peter receives his mission while recognizing himself as a sinner, his journey of discovery of forgiveness in sin and of fidelity in infidelity will be typical of every believer. Simon will become Peter and will be charged to confirm his brothers in the faith just when he will have consumed to the end his experience of weakness. The mission of Peter, who has experienced the mercy of the Lord Who has fished him from sin, will consist in fishing people. The whole humanity is immersed in the sea, in the abyss of perdition, separated from God and in the arms of death. What Jesus has done and will do with everyone, including the disciples of the boat, that is, the action of saving from the abyss, will be the fishing with which the disciples themselves will be associated, for the benefit of all men.
In fact, they will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, continuing His own mission of envoys of the Father: "to save what was lost." The boat is already a realization of this kingdom of saved, a sacrament, an effective sign of salvation for the world, until His return.
READING FROM LUKE 5:1-11 THE CALL OF SIMON THE FISHERMAN 1 While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.2He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.3Getting 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.4 After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”5Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”6When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.7They 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.8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”9For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him,10and 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.”11When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.
Reading 1 IS 6:1-2A, 3-8 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.
They cried one to the other, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! 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 that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it, and said, "See, 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!" Responsorial Psalm PS 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8 R. (1c) In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord. I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth; in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise; I will worship at your holy temple and give thanks to your name. R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord. Because of your kindness and your truth; for you have made great above all things your name and your promise. When I called, you answered me; you built up strength within me. R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord. All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth; and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD: "Great is the glory of the LORD." R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord. Your right hand saves me. The LORD will complete what he has done for me; your kindness, O LORD, endures forever; forsake not the work of your hands. R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord. Reading 2 1 COR 15:1-11 I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
FAUSTI - The crowd pours over Jesus to hear the Word of God on the seashore. Jesus stands before this people ready for listening and for exodus: He is like the shepherd who gathers the sheep to lead them to pasture. The disciples are already on the boat from where Jesus speaks.
RispondiEliminaThis boat is figure of the Church, a small community that floats on the abyss and makes its exodus. It is already the point of arrival of His mission, so He sits down and from there He turns to others ones who are still on the shore.
Peter received from Jesus the commission to drive the boat offshore.
The fishing represents the Apostolic mission that begins now, and that will extend very far, to the ends of the earth.
They are out in the open, after a night of useless toil, and experience, in obedience to His Word, the abundance of the fruits of the promised blessing.The nets that the Apostles drop, St. Ambrose suggestively says in his commentary, are the announcement made of interweaving of words, widening of speech and depth of answers that take in their mesh and do not lose those who are taken. They do not kill those who are caught there, but they keep them alive, they draw them from the depths to the light and from the depths they lead those who were submerged to the surface.
How many times they had lowered their nets unnecessarily!
That same night they had taken nothing.
The order of Jesus, addressed to professional fishermen, seems a little offensive, as well as senseless. Do they not know their profession well and Isn' t at night that they fish? They will have to understand that it is not by force and will that they act, and that action is fruitful precisely during the day, because they obey the "sun" that has arisen to illuminate those who were previously in darkness and in the shadow of death.
The vain fatigue of the night indicates the futility of all human efforts made by their own will to establish the Kingdom of God. Because it is of God!
Obedience to the Word of the Lord, whose power they have heard and seen, is the only reason to hope for the impossible that it promises to those who obey.
Faith has no other support. It bears the infallible and overflowing fruit of this fishery, which exceeds all human expectation and ability. The nets almost break because they are unable to contain the realization of the promise, which is superior to any fame, but nothing is lost!
In addition to Peter's boat there is also another boat associated with fishingboth are filled, symbol of God's blessing, to the point of sinking,, but they do not sink.
Before the Truth of God and His gift of mercy, man discovers his own truth. Peter feels far away - that's why he tells Him to get away from him - and he sees himself lost: he knows that he is not what he must be and he feels unworthy. There isn't a revelation of God without awareness of one's own sin. His infinite majesty is known at the same time that we know our infinite lowliness, and only by this.
Peter receives his mission while recognizing himself as a sinner, his journey of discovery of forgiveness in sin and of fidelity in infidelity will be typical of every believer. Simon will become Peter and will be charged to confirm his brothers in the faith just when he will have consumed to the end his experience of weakness.
The mission of Peter, who has experienced the mercy of the Lord Who has fished him from sin, will consist in fishing people.
The whole humanity is immersed in the sea, in the abyss of perdition, separated from God and in the arms of death. What Jesus has done and will do with everyone, including the disciples of the boat, that is, the action of saving from the abyss, will be the fishing with which the disciples themselves will be associated, for the benefit of all men.
In fact, they will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, continuing His own mission of envoys of the Father: "to save what was lost." The boat is already a realization of this kingdom of saved, a sacrament, an effective sign of salvation for the world, until His return.
RispondiEliminaREADING FROM LUKE 5:1-11
RispondiEliminaTHE CALL OF SIMON THE FISHERMAN
1 While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.2He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.3Getting 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.4 After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”5Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”6When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.7They 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.8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”9For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him,10and 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.”11When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.
Reading 1 IS 6:1-2A, 3-8
RispondiEliminaIn 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.
They cried one to the other,
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
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 that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it, and said,
"See, 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!"
Responsorial Psalm PS 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
R. (1c) In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth;
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD:
"Great is the glory of the LORD."
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Reading 2 1 COR 15:1-11
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.