Lectio
“When Christ commanded to let down the nets, the multitude of the fishes taken was just as great as the Lord of the sea and land willed. For the voice of the Word is the voice of power, at whose bidding at the beginning of the world light and the other creatures came forth. At these things Peter wonders, for he was astonished, and all that were with him…”
— Gregory of Nyssa, as excerpted in Aquinas, Catena Aurea
Meditatio
All things are possible for God and, through Christ, all things are possible for us. He meets us in our need — in sickness, in hunger, in poverty of spirit as much as circumstance. There is nothing He withholds from those who turn to Him in faith, and by grace, He draws us into believing and trusting Him, so that what He gives becomes what we can receive. Just as, at Christ’s word, the nets that caught nothing all night suddenly strained to breaking under the weight of His abundance, the Lord always responds to our prayers — often with more than we thought to ask for.
God’s answers to our prayers may not always be as we wish them to be, however. What Peter meets in that boat is not a favor granted but a power he has no category for — the same voice that first called light out of darkness now speaking into his ordinary, empty work. There is nothing strange in that we ask and are astonished by what we receive; what is strange is that the same authority which spoke the world into being still speaks, still commands, still fills nets that had nothing to give. Because God, Himself, has promised us, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Matthew 7:7). There is nothing the Lord, our God, will not do for His children whom He loves, and He always wills for us what is best, not necessarily what we desire.
When, with faith and humility, we look back at what the Lord has done in, with, and for our lives, we will be astonished, not only by the miracles He has performed, but by the sheer authority with which He has performed them. If we are honest with ourselves, we will see that His abundance is far greater and far more generous than our petty and selfish desires because we cannot see as God sees, and so, of our own power, we will always sell ourselves short. This is because, like Peter, we think only in terms of what we can accomplish without Christ. Until we come to know Him — who He truly is, and what He has, can, and will accomplish for us — we simply cannot fathom a love and a power like His, the same power that speaks and is obeyed by wind, sea, and empty nets alike.
Oratio
The Drowning Sea
draw me in
from the drowning sea
by Your nets
of mercy
all my doubts
left behind
in the depths
from which You pulled me
by miracles
by acts of love
save me from
who I was willing to be
Contemplatio
You have cast your nets many times into your own empty nights, hauling up nothing but your own effort. Somewhere beneath the surface of your life, a voice you did not summon is still speaking — the same voice that spoke light into being. You do not have to understand the depths to be found in them. Let the nets fill in their own time; rest, and let Him move as He wills.
Related Scripture
“For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth.”
— Psalm 33:9 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The Gravity of God: James Finley and the Pull Toward Christ’s Center (Lectio Divina), which turns from the astonishment of being met by divine power toward the quieter, daily experience of being drawn back to that same center by grace.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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