5th Sunday
6th February 2022
St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh
“Cast out your nets”
My friends,
There are a lot of genuine and interesting conversations going on now. They are triggered by our experience of Covid over the last two years – not that Covid is over but its less of a threat now given the extent of the vaccination programme. The conversations are shaped by people’s new experience of life dictated by the various restrictions that had to be observed. Family, work, recreation, friendship were all effected. So much so that people are genuinely thinking about life in a different way.
In the overall one gets a sense that many do not want to go back to a pace of living life that they realise now robbed them of so much. Many of the questions hinge around time, how it is spent, with whom and on what focus. The phrase ‘quality time’ seems to be emerging as a priority. All because the “Covid pause” gave us a new experience of a different pace whether we liked it or not.
When Jesus asked Peter to cast out his net into the deep waters, he informed him they had worked hard all night and caught nothing still because Jesus asked him to do so he did and we know the result.
For many these past two years have been like a long night of hard work with little or nothing to show for it. In fact, many are inclined to see it as two years wasted and almost stolen from them. It’s a mistake to see it that way. They are no more wasted than any difficult life experience like illness, an accident or a sudden bereavement. As we heal from any hurt in life it becomes part of who we are and we are usually the better for the understanding, compassion and endurance that we come through.
Jesus remember, had been aware of Simon Peter’s long night of fruitless fishing when he invited him to cast his net out into the deep. The Lord Jesus didn’t go missing during the Pandemic he was with us and among us in the courage and generosity of so many – many of whom are genuinely worn out after a long night of hard work.
Now that a new dawn awaits us, we are invited to get back into life – to cast out our nets into the deep once again. This applies to us whatever age we might be. That while we observe a natural and wise sense of caution, we do not allow our fear or weariness to discourage us too greatly.
The conversations I spoke of at the beginning are the result of our Covid experience – in a sense you might say they are the blessings of Covid. We have recovered thankfully the importance of those close to us in life, we have a renewed appreciation of silence and reflection. Nature is fresh with a new exuberance. Live music and song has a new exhilaration for us.
Whether we realise it or not all these are elements that go to the heart of our faith and the spirituality that flows out from that centre. Many among us are uncertain where they stand on matters of faith and belief, Church and God. The current conversations being engaged in by so many are surely potentially grace filled opportunities to nurture a more wholesome and authentic spiritual life.
