No Fear

5th Sunday In Ordinary Time
7 February 2010


Come, let us rejoice in the Lord: let us acclaim God our salvation, alleluia.

First reading Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord of Hosts seated on a high throne; his train filled the sanctuary; above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings.
And they cried out to one another in this way,
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.
His glory fills the whole earth.’
The foundations of the threshold shook with the voice of the one who cried out, and the Temple was filled with smoke. I said:
‘What a wretched state I am in! I am lost,
for I am a man of unclean lips
and I live among a people of unclean lips,
and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of Hosts.’
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. With this he touched my mouth and said:
‘See now, this has touched your lips,
your sin is taken away,
your iniquity is purged.’
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:
‘Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?’
I answered, ‘Here I am, send me.’

Psalm or canticle: Psalm 137:1-5,7-8

Second reading 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you – believing anything else will not lead to anything.
Well then, in the first place, I taught you what I had been taught myself, namely that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died; then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it.
I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they preach, and this is what you all believed.

Gospel Luke 5:1-11
Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.

Reflection
By Benj Santiago

“Don’t be afraid: from now on you will be catching men"

Any change creates stress especially changing jobs. Jumping from or being assigned from one particular area to another is indeed stressful. What more is stressful to Peter, James and John who were fishermen and asked by Jesus to be fishers of men?

In my 28 years of working in the corporate life, I had more than 10 times cross over organizations and companies and indeed there were a lot of pressure that sometimes affect your relationships.

But how about a drastic change from what you have been doing and are comfortable with to being a fisher of men? In other words, of that of being a disciple of Christ, of being able to minister His words to others? This is tough. But, Jesus is telling us not to be afraid because everyone is tasked to be fishers of men.

I have a strong prodding since then to be a fisher of men in my own capacity as an employee in our company. It’s a tough challenge but indeed it was made easy by His assurance and His words, "not to be afraid".

Thus, in any business I hold, any job I do, I am no longer afraid. I combine discipleship with my business and job. And thank God, I am able to minister His words to many people I meet. And guess what? It’s fun, it’s liberating, and no stress. More importantly no fear!

Lord we pray for wisdom and love that we may overcome our fear in ministering Your Words to everyone we meet. Grant us the courage to be fishers of men. Amen.

Next week on God-speak
Be Rich and Still Get to Heaven