St. Gregory the Great, pope & doctor

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

1 Corinthians 3:18-23

Do not deceive yourselves.

If anyone of you considers himself wise in the ways of the world, let him become a fool, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s eyes. To this, Scripture says: God catches the wise in their own wisdom. It also says: The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is useless.

 Because of this, let no one become an admirer of humans, for everything belongs to you, Paul, Apollos, Cephas—life, death, the present and the future. Everything is yours, and you, you belong to Christ, and Christ is of God.

 

Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 5:1-11

One day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around him listening to the word of God, he caught sight of two boats left at the water’s edge by the fishermen now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to pull out a little from the shore. There he sat and continued to teach the crowd.

 When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if you say so, I will lower the nets.”

This they did and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats almost to the point of sinking.

 Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made and so were Simon’s partners, James and John, Zebe­dee’s sons.

Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on.” So they brought their boats to land and followed him, leaving everything.

 

Gospel Reflection：

A famous boxer suffered five straight losses so that his handlers advised him to retire. He did not listen to them and arranged another fight. Someone agreed to coach him on the condition that he sees a psychological therapist.

The therapist told him: “You lost your recent fights not because your opponents are better. You were beaten by yourself. You are tired. You are looking for something beyond boxing.”

The boxer did win his next match but announced his retirement thereafter. Our Gospel presents Peter unable to catch fish because he hungers for a bigger catch. He yearns to catch himself a bigger purpose – a vocation deeper than his profession.

Notably, Peter is no longer interested in fish despite the overwhelming load drawn at the command of Jesus. He is more interested in Jesus. With Jesus, he discovered the biggest catch.