Most of us have tasted failure in one shape or form, perhaps even on numerous occasions. We may have failed to live up to the goals we had set ourselves. Some enterprise or some initiative that we had invested in may have come to nothing. The pandemic has certainly scuttled many of our plans over the past year and a half. All such experiences can leave us feeling disheartened. There is a response to the feeling of failure in St. Luke’s Gospel (5, 1-11). The disciples applied themselves to their “first vocation” – fishing – but came up emptyhanded. We can hear the note of failure in St. Peter’s complaint, “we worked hard all night long and caught nothing,” and in his later appeal, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Failures do not need to have the last word, because the Lord is near and can help us through them. He transformed the disciples’ fruitless night’s labor by giving them an abundant catch of fish. He also insisted that St. Peter, despite his weakness, would work with Him, drawing people into the nets of God’s Kingdom. The Lord is constantly at work in all kinds of unpromising situations, always bringing life out of loss and failure. For this to happen, we need to not give in to discouragement. We need to keep putting out into deep water in response to His faithful Word.
Let us pray. “Each day, all day, you are with us, Lord. You sustain us. You are the air we breathe and depend upon for life. Help us trust that you are with us, that we walk within your presence, that your Word is here to guide us, and that we can draw upon your Spirit’s help. No matter what we fear, no matter how we fail, no matter what befalls us: we will not forget that you are with us, that we are never all alone, and that together we will make it. Make us true to our ‘real vocation’ – following you with our whole heart, mind, and soul. In your Holy Name. Amen.”
