DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

When Jesus had finished speaking, He said to Simon Peter, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon Peter answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. – Luke 5:4-6

This life of contemplative Christianity is much in tune with that command of Christ to Simon Peter, “Put out into the deep water and cast your nets there.”  For so long, the Christians around me kept telling me to cast my nets in the shallows … and I worked so many years … with nothing to show for it.

Too much of Christianity is about fishing the shallows rather than fishing the deeper waters.  The shallows are filled with platitudes, slogans, catchy titles, and easy answers; but the depths are teeming with wisdom, discernment, mysteries revealed and fuller understanding.  The shallows are where the judgmental attitudes are found, and also an easy-to-come-by self-righteousness.  The depths are where the compassionate empathy is found, and also the questions that God needs us to ask.  The shallows are for splashing but not getting too wet; the depths are for diving further in, totally immersed in the river of God.

Fishing the shallows leads to a meager harvest of transformation of one’s soul, but fishing the deeper waters brings one a harvest of wisdom and More Perfect Love from out of the depths of God’s Mind and Heart.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz