Book of Isaiah 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; 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!"
Psalms 138(137) 1-2a.2bc-3.4-5.7c-8. 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.
I will give thanks to your name, because of your kindness and your truth. When I called, you answered me; you built up strength within me.
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."
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.
First Letter to the Corinthians 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 Kephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he 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.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5,1-11
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.
ANGELUS 6 February 2022 Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
The Gospel of today’s Liturgy takes us to the banks of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd is gathering around Jesus, while some disappointed fishermen, among them, Simon Peter, are washing their nets after a night of fishing that had gone badly. And so it is that Jesus climbs into Simon’s boat; then he invites him to go out to sea and cast his nets again (cf. Lk 5:1-4). Let us pause on these two actions of Jesus: first he climbs into the boat and then, the second one, he invites him to put out to sea. It was a night that had gone badly, without fish, but Peter is trusting and puts out to sea.
First of all, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat. To do what? To teach. He asks for that very boat, which is not full of fish but rather has returned to the shore empty, after a night of toil and disillusionment. It is a beautiful image for us too. Every day the boat of our life leaves the shores of our home to sail out into the sea of daily activities; every day we try to “fish in the open sea”, to cultivate dreams, to pursue projects, to experience love in our relationships. But often, like Peter, we experience the “night of empty nets” — the night of empty nets — the disappointment of trying very hard and not seeing the desired results: “We toiled all night and took nothing” (v. 5), says Simon. How often, we too are left with a sense of defeat while disappointment and bitterness arise in our hearts. Two very dangerous seeds.
So what does the Lord do? He chooses to climb into our boat. He wants to proclaim the Gospel from there. It is precisely that empty boat, the symbol of our incapacity, that becomes Jesus’ “cathedra” , the pulpit from which he proclaims the Word. And this is what the Lord loves to do — the Lord is the Lord of surprises, of miracles in surprises — to climb into the boat of our lives when we have nothing to offer him; to enter our emptiness and fill it with his presence; to make use of our poverty to proclaim his richness, of our miseries to proclaim his mercy. Let us remember this: God does not want a cruise ship: a poor “ramshackle” boat is enough for him, as long as we welcome him. This yes, to welcome him; it does not matter on which boat, but to welcome him. But, I wonder, do we let him into the boat of our lives? Do we make available to him the little we have? Sometimes we feel unworthy of him because we are sinners. But this is an excuse that the Lord does not like, because it distances him from us! He is the God of closeness, of compassion, of tenderness, and he does not seek perfectionism: he seeks our welcome. He says to you too: “Let me get into the boat of your life”, “But Lord, look...” — “Like that, let me in, just as it is”. Let us think about this.
In this way, the Lord rebuilds Peter’s trust. When he climbs into the boat, after preaching, he says: “Put out into the deep” (v. 4). It was not a good time of the day for fishing, in broad daylight, but Peter trusts in Jesus. He does not base his trust on the strategies of fishermen, which he knows well, but rather he bases it on the newness of Jesus. That wonder that moved him to do what Jesus told him. It is the same for us too: if we welcome the Lord into our boat, we can put out to sea. With Jesus, we sail the sea of life without fear, without giving in to disappointment when one catches nothing, and without giving up and saying “there is nothing more that can be done”. Always, in personal life as well as in the life of the Church and society, there is something beautiful and courageous that can be done, always. We can always start over — the Lord always invites us to get back on our feet because he opens up new possibilities. So let us accept the invitation: let us chase away pessimism and mistrust, and put out to sea with Jesus! Our little empty boat, too, will witness a miraculous catch.
Let us pray to Mary, who like no other, welcomed the Lord into the boat of her life. May she encourage us and intercede for us.
In today’s liturgy, the Gospel according to Luke presents the story of the call of the first disciples, with an original version that differs from that of the other two Synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark (cf. Mt 4: 18-22; Mk 1:16-20) . The call, in fact, was preceded by the teaching of Jesus to the crowd and a miraculous catch of fish, carried out by the will of the Lord (Lk 5:1-6). In fact, while the crowd rushes to the shore of Lake Gennesaret to hear Jesus, he sees Simon discouraged because he has caught nothing all night. First Jesus asks to get into Simon’s boat in order to preach to the people standing a short distance from the shore; then, having finished preaching, he commands Simon to go out into the deep with his friends and cast their nets (cf. v. 5). Simon obeys, and they catch an incredible amount of fish. In this way, the evangelist shows how the first disciples followed Jesus, trusting him, relying on his Word, all the while accompanied by miraculous signs. We note that, before this sign, Simon addresses Jesus, calling him “Master” (v. 5), while afterwards he addresses him as “Lord” (v. 7). This is the pedagogy of God’s call, which does not consider the quality of those who are chosen so much as their faith, like that of Simon that says: “At your word, I will let down the nets” (v. 5).
The image of the fish refers to the Church’s mission. St Augustine says in this regard, “Twice the disciples went out to fish at the Lord’s command: once before the Passion and the other time after the Resurrection. In the two scenes of fishing, the entire Church is depicted: the Church as it is now and as it will be after the resurrection of the dead. Now it gathers together a multitude, impossible to number, comprising the good and the bad; after the resurrection, it will include only the good” (Homily 248.1). The experience of Peter, certainly unique, is nonetheless representative of the call of every apostle of the Gospel, who must never be discouraged in proclaiming Christ to all men, even to the ends of the world. However, today’s text is a reflection on the vocation to the priesthood and the consecrated life. It is the work of God. The human person is not the author of his own vocation but responds to the divine call. Human weakness should not be afraid if God calls. It is necessary to have confidence in his strength, which acts in our poverty; we must rely more and more on the power of his mercy, which transforms and renews.
Dear brothers and sisters, may this Word of God revive in us and in our Christian communities courage, confidence and enthusiasm in proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel. Do not let failures and difficulties lead to discouragement: it is our task to cast our nets in faith — the Lord will do the rest. We must trust, too, in the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the Queen of Apostles. Well aware of her own smallness, she answered the Lord’s call with total confidence: “Here I am”. With her maternal help, let us renew our willingness to follow Jesus, Master and Lord.
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.
Book of Isaiah
RispondiElimina6,1-2a.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; 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!"
Psalms 138(137)
1-2a.2bc-3.4-5.7c-8.
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.
I will give thanks to your name,
because of your kindness and your truth.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
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."
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.
First Letter to
the Corinthians 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 Kephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he 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.
EliminaHoly Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Luke 5,1-11
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.
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 6 February 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
The Gospel of today’s Liturgy takes us to the banks of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd is gathering around Jesus, while some disappointed fishermen, among them, Simon Peter, are washing their nets after a night of fishing that had gone badly. And so it is that Jesus climbs into Simon’s boat; then he invites him to go out to sea and cast his nets again (cf. Lk 5:1-4). Let us pause on these two actions of Jesus: first he climbs into the boat and then, the second one, he invites him to put out to sea. It was a night that had gone badly, without fish, but Peter is trusting and puts out to sea.
First of all, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat. To do what? To teach. He asks for that very boat, which is not full of fish but rather has returned to the shore empty, after a night of toil and disillusionment. It is a beautiful image for us too. Every day the boat of our life leaves the shores of our home to sail out into the sea of daily activities; every day we try to “fish in the open sea”, to cultivate dreams, to pursue projects, to experience love in our relationships. But often, like Peter, we experience the “night of empty nets” — the night of empty nets — the disappointment of trying very hard and not seeing the desired results: “We toiled all night and took nothing” (v. 5), says Simon. How often, we too are left with a sense of defeat while disappointment and bitterness arise in our hearts. Two very dangerous seeds.
So what does the Lord do? He chooses to climb into our boat. He wants to proclaim the Gospel from there. It is precisely that empty boat, the symbol of our incapacity, that becomes Jesus’ “cathedra” , the pulpit from which he proclaims the Word. And this is what the Lord loves to do — the Lord is the Lord of surprises, of miracles in surprises — to climb into the boat of our lives when we have nothing to offer him; to enter our emptiness and fill it with his presence; to make use of our poverty to proclaim his richness, of our miseries to proclaim his mercy. Let us remember this: God does not want a cruise ship: a poor “ramshackle” boat is enough for him, as long as we welcome him. This yes, to welcome him; it does not matter on which boat, but to welcome him. But, I wonder, do we let him into the boat of our lives? Do we make available to him the little we have? Sometimes we feel unworthy of him because we are sinners. But this is an excuse that the Lord does not like, because it distances him from us! He is the God of closeness, of compassion, of tenderness, and he does not seek perfectionism: he seeks our welcome. He says to you too: “Let me get into the boat of your life”, “But Lord, look...” — “Like that, let me in, just as it is”. Let us think about this.
In this way, the Lord rebuilds Peter’s trust. When he climbs into the boat, after preaching, he says: “Put out into the deep” (v. 4). It was not a good time of the day for fishing, in broad daylight, but Peter trusts in Jesus. He does not base his trust on the strategies of fishermen, which he knows well, but rather he bases it on the newness of Jesus. That wonder that moved him to do what Jesus told him. It is the same for us too: if we welcome the Lord into our boat, we can put out to sea. With Jesus, we sail the sea of life without fear, without giving in to disappointment when one catches nothing, and without giving up and saying “there is nothing more that can be done”. Always, in personal life as well as in the life of the Church and society, there is something beautiful and courageous that can be done, always. We can always start over — the Lord always invites us to get back on our feet because he opens up new possibilities. So let us accept the invitation: let us chase away pessimism and mistrust, and put out to sea with Jesus! Our little empty boat, too, will witness a miraculous catch.
Let us pray to Mary, who like no other, welcomed the Lord into the boat of her life. May she encourage us and intercede for us.
BENEDICT XVI
RispondiEliminaANGELUS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today’s liturgy, the Gospel according to Luke presents the story of the call of the first disciples, with an original version that differs from that of the other two Synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark (cf. Mt 4: 18-22; Mk 1:16-20) . The call, in fact, was preceded by the teaching of Jesus to the crowd and a miraculous catch of fish, carried out by the will of the Lord (Lk 5:1-6). In fact, while the crowd rushes to the shore of Lake Gennesaret to hear Jesus, he sees Simon discouraged because he has caught nothing all night. First Jesus asks to get into Simon’s boat in order to preach to the people standing a short distance from the shore; then, having finished preaching, he commands Simon to go out into the deep with his friends and cast their nets (cf. v. 5). Simon obeys, and they catch an incredible amount of fish. In this way, the evangelist shows how the first disciples followed Jesus, trusting him, relying on his Word, all the while accompanied by miraculous signs. We note that, before this sign, Simon addresses Jesus, calling him “Master” (v. 5), while afterwards he addresses him as “Lord” (v. 7). This is the pedagogy of God’s call, which does not consider the quality of those who are chosen so much as their faith, like that of Simon that says: “At your word, I will let down the nets” (v. 5).
The image of the fish refers to the Church’s mission. St Augustine says in this regard, “Twice the disciples went out to fish at the Lord’s command: once before the Passion and the other time after the Resurrection. In the two scenes of fishing, the entire Church is depicted: the Church as it is now and as it will be after the resurrection of the dead. Now it gathers together a multitude, impossible to number, comprising the good and the bad; after the resurrection, it will include only the good” (Homily 248.1). The experience of Peter, certainly unique, is nonetheless representative of the call of every apostle of the Gospel, who must never be discouraged in proclaiming Christ to all men, even to the ends of the world. However, today’s text is a reflection on the vocation to the priesthood and the consecrated life. It is the work of God. The human person is not the author of his own vocation but responds to the divine call. Human weakness should not be afraid if God calls. It is necessary to have confidence in his strength, which acts in our poverty; we must rely more and more on the power of his mercy, which transforms and renews.
Dear brothers and sisters, may this Word of God revive in us and in our Christian communities courage, confidence and enthusiasm in proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel. Do not let failures and difficulties lead to discouragement: it is our task to cast our nets in faith — the Lord will do the rest. We must trust, too, in the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the Queen of Apostles. Well aware of her own smallness, she answered the Lord’s call with total confidence: “Here I am”. With her maternal help, let us renew our willingness to follow Jesus, Master and Lord.
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.