Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Peter and Andrew were casting their nets every day and many a night, but little of this had benefits. When Jesus appeared on the shore of the lake, He gave their lives new meaning. Only God can give a man a new meaning to his existence. Only God makes life so thrilling and fascinating, worthy of abandoning immediately all that one has hitherto done.
It is through Jesus that our lives’ needs can be met even in the most mundane form, but He desires more. He wants to do something more wonderful for mankind. His plan is to release people submerged in a sea of sin and to show them the New World. In this short episode of fishing, we see how great God is in Jesus Christ! He uncovered before these brothers a new dimension of life, helping them to see something infinitely more beautiful than seaweed, fish fins, rope nets and salty sweat. He helped Peter and Andrew raise their aspirations, from the seabed to the unfathomable sky.
Around us there are thousands of people who can not cope with life; they do not see any prospects, and even more do not have hope in God. Tangled in a web of powerlessness and futility, they lean toward despair and self-condemnation. They are lost in the web of taxes, cellular dependence, online shopping, compulsive addictions, toxic emotional wounds from childhood, debts, and finally snares of sins. Who will pull them up?
Jesus first freed from the power of fishing Peter and Andrew, and then told them to go and “fish” for others to new life in the Holy Spirit. It is true that the sense of the value of life, comes from the fact of being helpful to others. It is to live with the knowledge that I helped someone get out of their problems. Here is the carpenter of Nazareth, who in a few words helped some average fishermen get out of their tangled fate and made them leaders of the people, but above all gave them the assurance of eternal life. He did not say: Come, follow me, that you may help me become a great religious leader, but He said, “follow me”, and I will make you the leaders, to become a refuge for the terrified.

The Church is patient and persevering, wherein some draw others higher than themselves. Jesus taught Peter and Andrew leadership, which is to serve others in their rise to the new heights, more than they would originally believe. This is the meaning of leadership in Christianity. Many people after reaching a career peak seek more. Christ shows us something completely different; not only to remove others from the bottom, but to place them on the top floor of heaven. May the Lord give us all that grace.

God bless!