Row on out...

"Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."

Luke 5:4

 

In today's Gospel, Jesus tells Peter to row out into deep water and try again, basically.  Peter had been fishing all night and had caught nothing.  Jesus asks him to give it another go and Peter, though voicing his doubts, does what Jesus asks.  And Peter witnesses a miracle.  Back in 1946, a Sister of Loreto, a teacher in India, was riding on a train when she heard Jesus beckon her to do something too.  And, even though it meant leaving what she had been doing--which was good and holy work--she answered this new call and founded her own order of Sisters. The nun was Mother Teresa and the new order was the Missionaries of Charity.  The situations were so similar when I read them this morning.  Peter must have shook his head at the idea of throwing out the nets again, but he did it.  Mother Teresa faced many obstacles in her work, but she did it...she answered the "call within a call" she had heard on that train in 1946.  It makes me wonder how often we answer the beckoning of Jesus in our lives.  When I think back, I realize how "called" I was to work in the blind rehabilitation field.  It was such a powerful desire I chased it down fairly relentlessly.  I also felt called to the vocation of marriage and motherhood.  And, now I feel very called to spiritual work and spiritual endeavors. I feel called to draw closer to God than I ever thought possible.  Let's spend some time this short-week Thursday pondering the calls we have received, and are still receiving, from Jesus, in our lives.  Are we answering them?  Are we casting out our nets into deep water?  Are we ready for the miracle?  Love, heidi