Discernment: What we learn from Luke 5: 1-11

Discernment:  Note what we learn about discernment from today’s Gospel, Luke 5: 1-11, Jesus is teaching a crowd of people. The crowd is pressing upon him, listening, Luke tells us, “to the word of God”—truly to the Word of God made flesh.  Jesus, feeling about to be crushed, spots Simon’s fishing boat a ways off shore—the fishermen were washing their nets.  So Jesus walks out to the boat, gets into it and pushes out a bit further to secure some space for Himself.  When he finishes teaching, he says to Simon: “Put out into the deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.”  Simon does so, even though he and his companions have been fishing all night, are worn out, so to speak, know that there are no fish in the area yet does what Jesus asks of them: Pays out into the deep and, to their amazement, have an overwhelming catch. “Who is this man,” Peter and his partners must have wondered.   I can imagine Peter saying to himself: “We’ve fished all night and caught nothing. He says: ‘Go out into the deep and you will find fish.”  Peter may have said to himself initially:  “What? He’s not a professional fisherman! I am.”  Then says: “Okay, Lord, We will go out into the deep, as you have asked of us.”

Following this large catch of fish, Peter falls on his knees and says to Jesus: “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.” That does not faze Jesus. He says to Simon and his partners, James and John: “’Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.’  Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.”

There are several lessons in this reading concerning the art of discernment:

• The importance of creating space for ourselves, as Jesus did, if we are to discern what God is asking of us. Do you recognize when other people’s will for us, their expectations, are crowding out our ability to hear the Word of God speaking to our hearts?
• That Jesus is our Master, knowing what is right for us in regard to our vocation in life or other serious choices we face? Do we listen to His instructions as Simon did, even when they make no sense to us?
• Being honest with Jesus, naming our failures, identifying out frustrations and sharing those with the Lord, as Simon had done when he told Jesus that they “have worked hard all night long and caught nothing.”  When you are struggling with your call in life or with a particular decision, do you go to the Lord
• The importance of falling on your knees before Jesus and recognizing your sinfulness, that is, your ability to walk away from what God is asking of you?
•  Hearing Jesus say to you: ‘Be not afraid’
• Leaving everything that would block you from knowing Jesus and doing the will of your God through Christ Jesus. What might you need to leave behind if you are going to embrace the vocation to which God is calling you or to follow His instructions?