Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
I can think of so many times in my life when I cast my net, and it came back empty. Maybe you can too.
I think of when I had finished my PhD and was desperate to get a teaching job. I applied to so many jobs that year. I got a few interviews. But, in the end, my net was empty.
I think of the year after my mother went through chemotherapy for breast cancer. I wanted good news about her health so badly. More empty nets.
Or I think about the time in my life when I needed someone to help me figure out how to resist a sexual harasser. Again, more empty nets.
Jesus knows all about our empty nets. He knows about all the times we applied for this or that job, or put ourselves forward for this or that promotion, or were praying so hard for some good news about a loved one, or desperately needed help that we just couldn’t get, or were working so hard toward reconciliation with someone and it didn’t come, and so on and so on. And his challenge to us is to throw that darn thing over the side of the boat one more time.
Of course, like Simon, we know all too well that our nets are going to come up empty—again! Like Simon says, he and his fellow fishermen had been fishing all night. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t put forth enough effort! There weren’t any fish to catch! But to his credit, Simon throws that thing over one more time because it is Jesus telling him to do so.
And the next thing he knows, he’s got more fish in his net than he knows what to do with. His net nearly tears apart because the load of fish is so great. And his boat just about sinks from the weight of all those fish.
We might imagine that this is a bootstraps story. Keep fighting no matter what! Just persevere, and it will all work out in the end.
I don’t read it that way. This story is not about bootstraps. It is not the case that everything always works out in the end if we just pull ourselves up and keep on trying. I know this from experience. And I bet you do too.
I kept on applying for those jobs, and I tried my hardest in those interviews. And I didn’t get a full-time teaching job that year. And despite all my prayers for my mother, she died of breast cancer at the tender age of 59. And it turned out that for a lot of years, I just had to deal with a sexual harasser and all of the negative fallout that brought me professionally.
It is not the case that Jesus makes everything turn out right for us, if we are faithful (as Simon surely was). That sort of message—that you will be, say, rich and happy if you have enough faith (and send money to a certain ministry)—is the heresy of the prosperity gospel. Not surprisingly, the only folks getting rich off that message are the preachers to whom you are supposed to send your cash.
Jesus’ message is quite different.
Like I said, Jesus knows about all the times our nets came up empty. And he gets it that at some point we just think—enough. I’m not throwing that thing over one more time. We think we know. And we don’t.
This is, to my mind, a story about humility. Whenever I have done the analysis and think I know what is possible and what is not, I need to remember Simon. Jesus isn’t telling me that if I just pull my bootstraps up one more time, all will be well. He is telling me that I am human, that I can’t see what mercies and graces God has in store for me.
Thanks be to God.
- Sue Trollinger