In early 1981 as a young man I was one of group leaders of the youth group in Arouca.  At that time I was highly regarded in the parish as on of the better leaders to have emerged from the youth group. 

With about three years leadership experience at the time, I was both able for the task of leading the group and also capable at functioning in the role. 

Having experienced a COR retreat in mid-January 1981, I settled into the routine of youth leadership in the parish then, towards the end of that year, I was among a group of youth leaders from the Archdiocese invited by the Archdiocesan youth co-coordinator to a leadership training programme. A short while after I was asked to be one of the coordinators of all the youth groups in the East Zone, including Tobago. 

After some initial hesitation I accepted the responsibility and embarked on what was at that time a life-changing experience for me. The task I had been performing quite capably in my parish was suddenly transformed into a ministry that changed not only my life but also impacted on the lives of countless other young people in Trinidad and Tobago. 

In the gospel story of today, the Fifth Sunday of the Year, Simon and his companions have a similar experience in their encounter with Jesus. Here are a group of men, quite expert at their work as fishermen, encountering Jesus and being invited in the course of that encounter to “put out into deep water and pay out their nets for a catch”.  (Luke 5:4-5)

Their response to that invitation from Jesus signalled their call to discipleship and transformed their everyday task into a life- changing ministry.

Just like Simon and his companions, I too in 1981, and all of us today, are called to discipleship. To answer that call however we are always initially challenged to “put out into deep waters and pay out our nets for a catch”. That challenge is a disconcerting one for us because it takes us into the unknown.

Most of us would rather continue doing that with which we are familiar and comfortable. We would rather stay on the shore “washing our nets”.  Jesus, however, invites us to “put out into the deep” because there we cannot depend on our own capabilities but must trust in him.

  That is one of the deep lessons of discipleship. A DISCIPLE KNOWS THAT HE MUST TRUST COMPLETELY IN JESUS. To the extent that we trust even after “we have toiled all night and caught nothing” we will receive a catch that will fill our “nets to breaking point.” 

As we enter into the celebration of liturgy this weekend we can thank God for all the moments of our lives when we met Jesus and responded to his invitation to us to be his disciples, to trust in him completely. 

Let us celebrate those times when we so responded and realised that the tasks of our daily life had been transformed into a lifelong ministry and we had now become “fishers of men”.

Loving Father, We thank you for your Son Jesus, and his call to us to be his disciples.  At first we may have been hesitant, protesting that “we had toiled all night and caught nothing”.

But as we listened to his voice and went out “into the deep”, trusting in him, we realised that we had “netted such a large catch of fish, our nets began to tear”.

Then as we got back to land we had no choice but to “leave everything and follow him”. Thank you Father.

Gospel Meditations for February are by Glen Cazoe, a member of the Maloney Parish, the Church of the Incarnation.