I once went on a fishing trip on a boat with my brother-in-law, his older brother, and their two friends. My brother-in-law and his family were fishermen in Vietnam. On this fishing trip, my brother-in-law was the one behind the wheel. He began with a slow speed from the port, and as soon as it passed the port, he began to raise the speed dancing on the surface of the water. When we got out to the deep sea, he began to slow down. It allowed me then to relax and enjoyed the beer with them.
Fishing was not only a fun time for me at that time, but it was a skill to catch fish. I picked up a reel that had four hooks on it with shrimp on them as bait. The moment I lowered down the hooks, the moment I felt the force pulling the reel as three fish bit and got hooked on three of four hooks. I was bleeding when I tried to reel them in. My brother-in-law, then, had to reel them in for me. I underestimated the fish when three of them pulled the force on the same string of the fishing reel. Next to me, a brother of my brother-in-law got hooked with a big fish on his fishing reel, & not a fishing rod. The fish pulled so hard that he jumped into the water to wrestle with the fish. He finally lost the fish at the end.
It was not the shrimp, the only bait for all kinds of fish, but what kind of bait to catch tuna fish, what kind of bait to catch redfish, and so on. With fake bait, my brother-in-law strolled the boat to catch tuna fish. Watching them reeled the tuna fish with the fishing rod when a fish got hooked was amazing. Tuna fish was strong, and when it got hooked, it usually made one wrestle with it for at least ten minutes. The fisherman often let the fish run out of energy after some wrestling minutes before he reared it in for a catch.
Through experience with the current of the water, the wind, and the fish that they called themselves fishermen. Even with their rich experience of fishing and a long day of catching nothing, at the words of Jesus, Simon Peter lowered the net with a specific and simple command, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon caught a great number of fish reported in today’s Gospel. This scene portrays at least two things: Jesus is God himself, and Simon is truly a human being. As God, he is the God of heaven, the whole universe, and what contained in the universe that in his command, they caught a great number of fish. As a human being, Simon is limited in his skill, strength, and understanding that when he does when Jesus commands him, he understands and recognizes who Jesus is. Jesus is his Lord, and he is a sinful man. Have you ever experienced that Jesus is your Lord, and you are a sinful person?
