Thursday, September 3, 2026
Thursday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
Luke 5:1-11
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
1 Corinthians 3:18-23
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.” And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.” Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 24:1-2,3-4,5-6
The earth is the Lord’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods. Who may ascend to the Lord’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek your face—even Jacob. Selah.
Gospel
Luke 5:1-11
Now while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets. He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered him, “Master, we worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net.” When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking. They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.” For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.” When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him.
Lectio
There is a particular kind of exhaustion Peter carries when Jesus climbs into his boat. He has worked all night and caught nothing, and now, tired and defeated, he is cleaning his nets while a preacher borrows his boat for a pulpit. When Jesus tells him to put out into the deep, Peter's answer holds both his weariness and a thread of surrender: "We worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net." It is the sentence of a man who has stopped trusting his own competence long enough to try something that makes no sense to him.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, names exactly this: the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, and if we want to become wise we must first become fools. Peter, the seasoned fisherman, knows the lake, knows the hours, knows that daylight is the wrong time to fish. Every instinct in him says the nets will come up empty again. And yet the abundance comes precisely when he lets go of what he knows and acts on a word he does not understand. Notice that the miracle does not make Peter proud — it undoes him. He falls at Jesus' knees, suddenly aware of his own smallness. The catch does not confirm his expertise; it dissolves it.
This is the strange grace of the readings held together: what we boast in must be emptied before it can be filled. "All things are yours," Paul says — but only because "you are Christ's." Peter does not possess the sea or the fish or even his own vocation until he hands the boat over. And then he is given more than he can hold, so much that the nets break and the boats begin to sink under the weight of a gift he never earned.
Where in your life right now are you cleaning your nets in tired defeat, convinced that trying again is pointless — and what would it mean to say "at your word" about that one thing today?
What competence or reputation of yours would have to be dissolved, as Peter's was, before you could kneel down and admit you are smaller than the gift being offered to you?
Saint of the day
St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (c.540-604) - Memorial
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora