Thursday of Week 22 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Colossians 1:9-14

Paul continues from yesterday’s reading his words of praise and encouragement for the Christians of Colossae. Moved by Epaphras’ account, Paul has prayed fervently for the Colossians that their response to the gospel may bring the fullest knowledge of God’s will, “in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”. He expects a mutual interaction between their life according to the gospel and this knowledge, which will reveal the power of God’s presence among them, strengthen them in courage and calm determination, and result in their grateful love of the Father for his saving gifts. For the Father conquers the power of evil over men by offering them the power of his Son, who is his love in person and has already forgiven their sins.

Following on what Paul has heard from Epaphras about the strong faith of the Colossians, he makes a beautiful prayer on their behalf. It is laid out here in a way that will make it easier for us to see its contents. It is a prayer that we can make for ourselves and for other people. Let us hear Paul saying this prayer for each one of us:

…we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

This is a prayer we should take line by line, stopping at any word or phrase which we find particularly meaningful or relevant to our own life and pausing there for a while—or even make that word or phrase the subject of our whole prayer.

Let’s think about some of the lines in the prayer:

…we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding

Scriptural knowledge is not merely the possession of facts or knowing a lot about the Bible. Rather, knowledge and wisdom in the Bible are concerned with the inner meaning of every passage and how it touches on living a Christ-filled life.

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father…

This is the lot of God’s holy people (the hagioi)—what all holy people are to inherit, i.e. the ‘salvation’ that originally had been thought of as a bequest made exclusively to the Chosen People of Israel.

Now, with the coming of Jesus, non-Jews are called to share in:

…the inheritance of the saints in the light.

This symbolises holiness, truth, love, glory and life. Accordingly, God, Christ and the Christian are all characterised by light. The “kingdom of light” is the opposite of the “dominion of darkness”. ‘Kingdom’ does not here refer to a territory, but to the authority, rule or sovereign power of a king (Greek, basileia—meaning ‘reign’ or ‘kingship’). Here it means that the Christian is no longer under the dominion of evil (darkness), but under the loving rule of God’s Son.

To be in the ‘Kingdom’ is to be closely united to God in being the kind of person he wants to us to be, and to be in cooperative union with others who are also that kind of person. What more could we ask for than a full knowledge of God’s will and to be filled with wisdom and spiritual insight? It is a prayer we need to make in some form every day of our lives. Only then may we:

…walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.

Let us then today thank God for all that he has done for us through Jesus Christ and the Christian community to which we belong. Let us pray that we grow in knowledge and wisdom and insight so that we may love and serve him more and more.

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Thursday of Week 22 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 5:1-11

Today we read Luke’s version of the first call of Jesus’ disciples. It differs significantly from the parallel versions in Mark and Matthew and is a combination of passages from Mark and John.

We are told that Jesus was standing by the shore of the “Lake of Gennesaret”. The other Gospel writers call it the Sea of Galilee and John twice refers to it as the Sea of Tiberias.

Because of the large crowds pressing in on him to hear the word of God, Jesus was forced to borrow one of two boats moored near the shore where their owners were washing their nets:

He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon*, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

As we saw in the synagogue at Nazareth (and also in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel), sitting was the usual teaching position. From a practical point of view, by preaching from the boat Jesus could avoid the pressure of the crowd and yet be close enough to speak to them.

It is a simple, straightforward statement and yet there is a symbolism here. Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and teaches from it. In the Gospels, the boat is frequently a symbol of the church community. It is very meaningful to say that Jesus stepped into that boat, that it was Simon’s boat, and that he taught from there. It is a symbol of what is to come in the near future.

Now comes the lesson and the revelation. At the end of the teaching, Simon is told to go out into the deep water and start fishing. Simon says in response:

Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.

Perhaps one can sense something of the condescension of the expert towards the amateur in Simon’s response, i.e. “we know there are no fish there, but just to make you happy, we’ll put out the nets.”

But their nets were hardly in the water when they were so full of fish that they were on the point of breaking. They (Simon and those others with him in the boat) had to call their companions in the other boat to come to their help (they do not seem to have caught any fish; only Simon’s boat does). The two boats together were now so full of fish that they were on the point of sinking.

Simon, just before, so arrogant and all-knowing, is now totally overcome. He knew there were no fish there. So there was only one explanation. The man standing before him was someone very special:

Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!

It is the reaction of a person in the presence of God’s overwhelming power and goodness. We see similar reactions by Abraham (Gen 18:27), Job (42:6) and Isaiah (6:5).

Simon—the ‘expert’—realises he is nothing in the presence of this man. Instead, he becomes aware of his shortcomings. Paradoxically, it is the saints who are most ready to acknowledge their sinfulness. And his companions, James and John, were equally amazed. There is no mention of Andrew in this version of the story because he would have been in his brother Simon’s boat. The passage indicates that Simon was not alone in the boat (“we have worked hard all night…”).

Some commentators feel that Luke may have borrowed this story from John’s account of the disciples going fishing at the end of that Gospel. It has been noted that Simon calls Jesus ‘Lord’, a post-resurrection title, and refers to his sinfulness, which makes more sense after his triple denial during the Passion. The story also looks forward to Peter’s leadership (his name is changed by then), which is confirmed in the same chapter of John.

Jesus then reassures Simon and his companions:

Do not be afraid…

These are words they will hear again because he is calling them to be his partners in the work of building his Kingdom. The huge catch of fish made by the boat carrying Jesus and Simon is a sign of a much greater catch of people to be made by the new community led by the Spirit of Jesus and under the leadership of Peter.

Unlike the other Gospels, Luke has a period of teaching and miracles preceding the call of the disciples. This makes their unhesitating response less surprising and more plausible.

They heard the message, they accepted the call and:

When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

In Mark and Matthew, they left their nets and boats. In Luke’s Gospel especially, the following of Jesus is understood as absolute—one must leave everything and throw in one’s lot totally with Jesus wherever that will lead. Those boats and nets were the security on which the lives of Simon, his companions and their families depended. But they left them and everything else. This is faith; this is trust. Without it, the mission cannot succeed.
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*He will not be called Peter until Luke’s next chapter.

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