A Homily for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

+ Disappointment and discouragement arrive all too often and in many ways. We struggle against the same vices and confess the same sins year after year, without apparent progress. We pray for intentions, particularly for the conversion of others, seemingly without success. Illness and age weary us. We offer ourselves for the service of Christ and His Church only to find ourselves more or less unwanted (something experienced all too often in our times by young men and women, older clergy and religious and even bishops and cardinals!) whilst the Church seems herself to be hurrying headlong down a path where process has become an end in itself, detouring the road to Calvary in an attempt to remain securely in and of this world, and all its works, and all its empty promises.
 
We persevere as best we can. We hold fast to the faith of our fathers and try to hand it on. But the words uttered by Saint Peter in the Holy Gospel of this Mass sit all too comfortably upon our lips: “We have toiled all the night, and we have caught nothing.” Our efforts seem to have been utterly futile, with little hope of future success. Who are we to change anything? What are we do?
 
On this fourth Sunday after Pentecost 2023, in the midst of our malaise, through the Sacred Liturgy of His Church Our Lord Jesus Christ addresses three words to each one of us: Duc in altum—set out into the deep waters and let down your nets for a catch—no matter how tired, discouraged, fed up or hurt we may be. “We have toiled all the night, and we have caught nothing,” Saint Peter protested, “but at Your word I will let down the nets,” he conceded.
 
We must not forget that Saint Peter was a professional fisherman. He knew his trade. In all likelihood he thought the exercise would be futile. So too might we. To set out into deep waters when everything heretofore has been unsuccessful, to expend time and energy without an assured result, to risk our comfort and security when what will come next is far from clear—common sense and prudence seem to advise against proceeding. Yet, in the end, Saint Peter yielded: “at Your word I will let down the nets,”—and the catch was more than abundant, resulting in Saint Peter leaving his fishing trade and following the man who had given him such an unusual command and becoming a fisher of men, the Prince of the Apostles and the rock upon which Christ built His Church.
 
Duc in altum. Are we prepared to set out into the deep? Are we prepared to follow the seemingly naïve or stupid commands that Our Lord gives us?
 
Deep waters are as dangerous as they are fruitful, and setting out into them can be frightening. We know ourselves, we know our own trades, as it were, and we know of what we are capable. Fair enough.
 
But what we do not know, very often, is whom Almighty God calls us to be, what He calls us to do in His service today and tomorrow, and how He will use our cooperation with His Will to bring about an abundant harvest. Only God knows that. We shall come to know it at least partially only if we make ourselves available to Him; only if we are prepared to set out into the deep waters.
 
This is the case for young people in vocational discernment, most certainly. The greatest monastic, apostolic and lay saints were once nervous, unformed and unsure teenagers and twenty-somethings. But by their willingness to set out into the deep they afforded the Church great catches that otherwise would not have been brought to shore. We are in great need of such faith-filled generosity today!
 
It is equally true for those of us whose vocation has been solemnised by profession, ordination, marriage or consecration. The Lord calls us also—most particularly at this time of great distress and anxiety in the Church—to set out into the deep, to take the risks necessary that unexpected and abundant catches may be brought to shore. (It is precisely in this context that the unusual steps we have had in conscience to take so as to ensure the survival and integrity of our own monastic life here may be understood.) When those who toil all night long catch nothing, it is time to set out into the deep, confident that if we are faithful to the Lord’s commands, the catch will exceed any expectations we many have.
 
Saint Peter’s response to the miraculous catch was to fall on his knees and exclaim: “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” He was a grown man, not a ‘green’ or rash youth. We, too, may consider ourselves unworthy—and not without good reason! But our worthiness or otherwise is not the point: God’s call and the grace He makes available to us with it is. We are called to set out into the deep with faith and profound trust in the power of His grace working in us and through us in ways we currently cannot imagine. We are sinful men, certainly, but the Lord calls us nevertheless—and responding to His call will enable Him to transform us.
 
Duc in altum. In our families, in our places of work, in our discerning and following of His call, in our cloister and in our parishes: no matter how discouraged we are and no matter how difficult the situation was or has become, this morning the Lord commands us to try yet again. For the grace necessary to be willing thus to set out anew, let us beg Almighty God at His altar in this Holy Mass. +