| Psalm 85 Judges 6:11-24 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11 |
 hile
the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the
lake of Gennes'aret. And he saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen had
gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats,
which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he
sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had ceased
speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets
for a catch." And Simon 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 enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking,
they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And
they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when
Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he was astonished, and all that were
with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James
and John, sons of Zeb'edee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to
Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." And when
they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
(Luke 5:1-11 NJB) |
Meditation for the 5th Sunday After the Epiphany / Septugesima ore
than sixty years ago, in 1945, at the end of World War II, the Allies did
something preciously unknown to mankind; they brought the aggressors, those
who had staged the war and committed the grossest atrocities in human
history, to trial. A special Tribunal of Allied attorneys, and judges was
impaneled and met in the city of Nuremburg and those charged with War Crimes
were publicly tried for those crimes. And these were not like so many of the
show trials put on by totalitarian regimes over the years. These were real
trials. A number of prominent Nazi party and military figures were tried at
Nuremburg, including Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, Martin Bormann, and
Rudolf Hess. Admittedly all of the “big names” on trial there were found
guilty, but some of the defendants were acquitted, and not every one of
those convicted was given the death penalty for his crimes.However, as we all know, not every war criminal from World War II went to trial at Nuremburg. A number of members of the Nazi party, using Vatican passports, stolen or forged documents, were able to escape from the disintegrating situation in Germany. They made their way, along with their families to the New World, particularly South and Central America. One war criminal who escaped in this manner was Adolf Eichmann. He was eventually brought to justice, having been caught in 1960. Still he managed to live as a free man for 14 years, before he was kidnapped in Argentina and smuggled to Israel to stand trial. He was tried by an Israeli court with crimes against humanity and against the Jewish people. He was convicted and was sentenced to death by the court. He was hanged in 1962. Eichmann had been responsible for organizing the forced deportations of Jews across Europe to the various Death Camps. He ran the trains and the convoys that brought them to places like Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Dachau. Yet throughout his trial, and the subsequent appeals, he repeatedly and consistently denied that he was responsible for anything. Eichmann insisted that he was nothing but a functionary, a “cog in the machine” he called himself. He was so non-descript, so non-threatening, so ordinary appearing that one observer, Hannah Arendt, was inspired to write a book subtitled, “A Report on the Banality of Evil”. She discovered that Adolf Eichmann was a normal as any of us and that he had no evil intents or motivations to commit the acts that he did. He was just like everyone else. He apparently loved his family and took care of them. He was probably good to his dog. All he did was go along with what he was told to do. Perhaps what makes this seem so very odd to us is that Jesus’ disciples were ordinary men, too. They were not rich or powerful. They scrabbled to earn their livings as they were able. How then can we understand how one normal, everyday, ordinary person can become St. Peter and another, the so very normal, the so very ordinary, Adolf Eichmann, can become one of the greatest war criminals mankind has ever, or will ever know? Two things jump out at me in the Gospel today which may explain this, at least in part. First, the people of Capernaum were actively seeking after, Luke says they “pressed” Jesus to hear, the word of God. And the second difference may well be a result of the first. St. Peter, when confronted by, standing face to face with Jesus, Peter recognized not his innate ordinariness, or his lack of differentiation from his neighbor, but rather the depth of own sinfulness. The banality, the sameness, the ordinariness of Peter’s life had not inured him to all the times when he had missed the mark. He was acutely aware that he did not and could not measure up to Jesus’ standards. In stead of looking at everyone else and judging himself against the ethical and moral standards of the masses, Peter looked into Jesus’ eyes and there saw reflected back at him, the reality of who and what he really was. At that moment, Peter knew exactly what his life, what he, had become, and he knew that he was not fit to stand in the presence of Christ. There is actually a third item mentioned in the Gospel which may also go toward explaining the differences between a Saint and a War Criminal. Mission. When Peter confesses his sinfulness, Jesus doesn’t cast him away. Rather he takes him, gives him a new focus and a mission. “From now on you will be fishers of men.” And so his life is changes. Peter accomplishes something that Eichmann never could. Peter transcends the ordinariness, the similitude, the banality of his existence. It does seem though that it all stems, is dependent upon seeking after, being open to the word of God. In last week’s Gospel Luke told us that Jesus’ teaching astonished his listener’s because His words had power. They do indeed. Today is Septugesima. And today, the Church begins the transition from Epiphany, the manifestation, the making known of Jesus to the penitential season of Lent. Beginning today, and continuing for the next two Sundays, we will be presented with a picture of this same authoritative Jesus who speaks with power and calls us to, like Peter, look honestly at who we are and what we have allowed ourselves to become. We will be called to transfigure what and where our attention is focused and given the task of measuring our lives against the measure that Jesus presents us with; the only measure that really matters. Let us begin.
|