Daily Gospel Reflection for February 6, 2022

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Luke 5:1-11

Today’s Gospel passage records the occasion of a momentous shift in Simon Peter’s life. It begins with Simon Peter tending to his fisherman’s vocation (washing his nets) while Jesus is proclaiming the Word of God.

Envisioning this scene reminds me of the many weeks at Mass I have been nursing babies, wrangling toddlers, and answering whispered questions from young children while the Word of God is being proclaimed. I’m physically close by, but I’m busy with the various tasks of my vocation.

However, Jesus doesn’t begrudge Simon Peter his multi-tasking. What He does do is get into Simon’s boat and test his faith. He asks Peter to go back out and lower the nets. You can almost hear the fisherman heave a sigh in his response: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing.”

How many times in my motherhood have I felt like I have worked hard all night and caught nothing? How many days have my feet never stopped moving but there is no clean house to show for it?

Jesus tests my faith. He gets into my boat. “Put out into deep water and lower your nets.” He’s not asking me for more dishwashing, more laundry, more moments of mothering. He’s asking me for . . . me. He is asking me to go into the deeps of prayer, to the depths of the Bible. It feels like it will be futile: I am so frazzled, so utterly spent.

But the great mystery of it is this: The catch does not depend on me. It depends solely on my obedience to the Lord’s prompting to lower my nets. He makes the catch for me. Simon Peter, seeing that the catch is so abundant that it tears the nets, is utterly changed. From that moment, he leaves everything and follows Jesus. He changes from being a fisherman to being a disciple who fishes.

When we lower our nets, we are also transformed. We go from being mothers to being disciples who are mothers. And so we receive the promise Our Lord gave to Simon Peter: We will become fishers of children.

Ponder:

Have I answered the Lord’s call to explore the deeps of prayer and Bible study or am I too absorbed in the tasks related to my vocation?

Pray:

Lord Jesus, transform us into disciples who are mothers. Make us fishers of children.

Click to tweet:
When we lower our nets, we are also transformed. We go from being mothers to being disciples who are mothers. #dailygospel

Copyright 2022 Amanda Woodiel