Depart from Me, Lord!

Wednesday, September 3, 2026

1 Cor 3: 18-23; Lk 5: 1-11

Today’s Gospel highlights Peter’s humility.

In the Gospel text, it is not the catch of fish that is amazing but ultimately the ‘catch’ of Peter.

We do not find Peter excited or happy about Jesus getting into his boat, though there were other boats on the shore. Jesus never asked anyone else to put out the boat a short distance from the shore. We do not see anywhere mentioned that all these things made Peter feel special or privileged. On the contrary, these could have been the very moments that already triggered his sense of unworthiness. 

Likewise, when Jesus asks Simon to ‘put out into deep water,’ though he resists with a reasonable response that they worked hard all night and caught nothing, he reveals his obedience in the way he addresses Jesus as ‘Master’ and accepts his words, saying, ‘At your command, I will lower the nets.’ Hence, the catch of fish may have surprised others, but not Peter. Instead, the miracle awakens his profound sense of unworthiness. 

Peter’s confession, ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man’ reveals his humility, which again points to his greatness. Here, we must note that the same Peter will fail in the future when he will deny thrice any knowledge of his Master. Yet, his humility will remain intact, making him remorseful after his helpless denial of the Lord. It is not that Peter never failed, but that he never made peace with his failures. His humility always took him back to the Lord. 

We must also note that Jesus sees the core of Peter, and at his core, the man was humble and spiritual. Jesus, who has seen the depths of his ‘head apostle,’ is not elated or taken aback by anything else. It is from this conviction that Jesus wants Peter to lead his Church. It is from this conviction that Jesus asks him to ‘feed his sheep.’ It is from this conviction that Jesus takes away Peter’s triple denial through his triple affirmation of love.

We must observe that the future leader of the Church does not think he has no weakness. Instead, he allows God’s mercy to work through it. In sum, the call narrative of Peter lets us find his greatness not through his feeling of worthiness or claim of entitlement but through a confession of his sinfulness. In other words, Peter’s greatness begins with his confession. That confession is also the beginning of his vocation.

Let us pray that we may inherit Peter’s humility to imitate the Lord better. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar