Who seeks to divide the church and separate us from one another? Who stands to gain when we fight and bicker over who is right and who is wrong? The answer is clear if and when this happens, we have lost sight and focus on Jesus our Lord and Saviour who died to unite the world on to Himself.
We have chosen to rely on our own wisdom instead of turning to the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us. We have forgotten how as unworthy as we were, He came and called us to follow Him! Weighed down by our sins He lifted us up with His great mercy and love. “Do not be afraid” He reminds us as He will be with us, when we go out to gather others who do not yet know Him and bring them to Him. So that they too can be set free to live fully in His love.
Instead of saying to You Lord, leave me I am a sinful man. I pray Lord, be with me always! I want more and more of You each and every day. Come Lord Jesus Come. Amen
First reading
1 Corinthians 3:18-23 ·
The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God
Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are; or again: God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
Gospel
Luke 5:1-11
They left everything and followed him
Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
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