Sermon on the 5th Sunday of the year February 6 Cenakel 1) Utrecht

“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people,” Jesus says 2). He speaks these words to the fishermen who have just caught an incredible catch at the word of this young rabbi, to their amazement and dismay. “From now on you will be catching people.” He does not say, “from now on you múst catch people”. As an assignment of which they do not know exactly what it means and how to do it, and therefore have justified doubts whether they will succeed in that assignment. No “from now on you wiill be catching  people”. At first Peter had answered: “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets”. They had despite their disappointment gone into business with Jesus. It is now also that word of Jesus, “be not afraid, for from now on you wil be cachting people” that asks for faith and that sets them in motion. What the disciples have just experienced as fishermen, they may now experience when they as his disciples and his apostles are sent, as his representatives, from the moment they start proclaiming the good news to people. This Gospel of this Sunday is in one image the story of the Apostles and the story of the whole Church, which is centered on the Apostles, people with their doubts and shortcomings like us, but at the same time called by the Lord to participate in the vocation of the church to catch people. That is not an impossible task. It’s a promise.
Of course we can have questions about that. They will be different every time. For generations, people have had no reservations about the term “catching people”. That is why it is good to take a moment to reflect on contemporary reserves in order to understand the message even better and to pass it on with all the more joy. We look back on slavery in our time. Countless people were deprived of their liberty and captured and transported to the Americas in overcrowded ships. The consequences of this are still visible in many forms of discrimination and denial. These images come to mind when we think of catching people. But also if we think of the countless refugees who fall into the hands of people smugglers under false pretenses. The suffering is incalculable. Also because of the unwillingness or inability of rich countries to offer them refuge or by improving their situation in their homeland. These images also come to mind when we think of people who are captured in large numbers. But we can also think of the people who are fascinated by conspiracy-theories due to disinformation and because they have lost their trust in government and all kinds of institutions, including the church. It is a crowd caught up in the issues and delusions of the day, manipulable and gullible. We cannot pass by this until we can speak of the church as catchers of men. Because also for the church there are temptations lurking to capture people in a different way and for a different life than Jesus Christ does. When the church takes the form of a bureaucracy in which people do not experience love, but encounter all kinds of incomprehensible or rigid rules. A church in which all emphasis is on organization and utility. Where believers are not an end but a means. Or a church that tries to win souls by making people afraid of the world and by pretending to be more beautiful than it realy is. Someone said:” the world is often not so bad and the church is often disappointing”.
“Be not afraid, from now on you will be catching people.” This can only mean that they will fully en wholeheartedly liberate people. The word used here in Greek—the language in which the Gospel is written—contains the word for “life.” “From now on you will give life back to people, liberate people.” Jesus makes this promise to his apostles and to the whole church that is founded on them. “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets” The point is that we don’t go to work on our own, as if Jesus were absent. Is if the world is void of longing for God en the good. And as if the church is nothing but an organisation. We must listen to Jesus in everything we do. He himself has delivered us through the sacrifice of his life and his glad tidings. He has made us children of God by faith. In this way we can stand openly in the world and bring people into contact with Christ. As individuals, but also as a community. Beacons of freedom. Like you, sisters, by your complete devotion in prayer and adoration for the mystery of Christ’s presence in our midst, in the very humblest of places. You are therefore also a sign and comfort for all fellow believers who stand in the middle of the world and who in their own way try to capture people and transfer them to the freedom of God’s children and the kingdom of God. Even though we sometimes feel small and unfit, just like Peter: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!.” We can be part of that great mission and that great adventure of bringing people into contact with Christ who came into the world as a light for the nations, as the savior of men. In the midst of all the systems that make people unfree, and of the lies that keep people captive, and against the people smugglers and exploiters who pass over corpses. By listening to Him, by our prayer, by our worship, by our charity, we may give our fellowmen a view, hope and love. Let’s not let our enthusiasm depend on the results we see. It is about the church of which we are a part by faith. We may see the final harvest when the kingdom of God begins. We are ignited by the community of the saints who have gone before us. It is a multitude that no one can number, who sing the praises of the victory of God’s love. Amen
(C) Martin Los, pr
1) monastry of the servants of the Holy Ghost of perpetual adoration, Utrecht (Zuilen)
2) Evangelie van deze zondag Luke 5:1-11