Thursday September 7, 2017
“Duc in altum!” Jesus ordered Simon. “Put out into deep water!” What did Simon do? He agreed to do so, because Jesus commanded it. He caught such a large number of fish that his net began to break. He had to call for help. He also realized the extent of his own sinfulness and begged Jesus to leave him. Fortunately, Jesus would not; instead, he would ask Simon to follow him.
Putting out into the deep can be dangerous. The depths are unchartered territories. You never know what resides in the depths, and what sins—yours and others’—would surface when you explore the depths in yourself and in other people. Your nets—the resources you have—may begin to break. You will be forced to call for help, even from your competitors. The catch you make could be a mixture of good, bad, and ugly fish. Is it all worth the risk? It is, if we do so at the command of Jesus.
Mother Teresa died on this day. She could have ignored Jesus’s command to put out into the deep—“Come, be my light!”—and remained within the safe confines of her Loreto convent. But she dared, like Peter, to put out into the deep. And how it changed her life, and ours!
