Duc In Altum
This coming weekend, in the Gospel we read how Jesus commandeered a fishing boat belonging to Peter, in order that he could speak more effectively to the people that were crowding around him on the shore. After he had finished speaking, he said to Peter, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Peter answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they caught a large number of fish and their nets were breaking.
Jesus’ words were: “Put into the deep.” The Latin is Duc in altum.
At the end of the Jubilee of 2000, Pope St John Paul II wrote an Apostolic Letter, NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE (‘at the beginning of the new millennium’), to encourage the Catholic Church to renew its enthusiasm for its spiritual and pastoral responsibilities. In this letter, he refers to this passage from Luke describing how Peter and his first companions trusted Christ’s words and cast the nets: When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish (Luke 5:6). Twenty-five years later we are beginning a new Jubilee year. We are also celebrating the 150-year Jubilee of the building of our church. I believe that we should take to heart Pope St John Paul’s words, encouraging us that, in all we do, we need to centre everything in Christ himself ‘who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfilment in the heavenly Jerusalem.’ To trust in Christ is to be attentive to him in prayer, which roots us in this truth. ‘It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness. When this principle is not respected, is it any wonder that pastoral plans come to nothing and leave us with a disheartening sense of frustration? We then share the experience of the disciples in the Gospel story of the miraculous catch of fish: “We have toiled all night and caught nothing” (Luke 5:5).’
This is the moment of faith, of prayer — of conversation with God in order to open our hearts to the tide of grace and allow the word of Christ to pass through us in all its power: Duc in altum! On that occasion it was Peter who spoke the words of faith: “At your word I will let down the nets.” In all that we, as a parish community, plan to do for the Jubilee year as pilgrims of hope, and all that we plan for the 150th anniversary of the building of our church, we need to listen attentively to where Christ and the Spirit are guiding us. In what ways must we put out into the deep? For what should we cast our nets?
