22nd Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, 03.09.09

Col 1:9-14

Lk 5:1-11

Among all the apostles, the one that we know about the most and hence talked about very often is St Peter.

Besides being known as the first pope, there are other characteristics about him that makes us wonder why Jesus gave him the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.

As we know it, St Peter denied Jesus, he slept during prayer, he was impulsive, rather boastful and shoots his mouth off.

Yet we cannot deny there was a child-like sincerity about St Peter.

In this gospel, we see that sincerity along with his humility.

St Peter was humble enough to take instructions from Jesus even though he himself should know better.

And when he saw the truth in Jesus he was sincere about acknowledging his unworthiness and limitations.

Maybe that was what Jesus saw in St Peter - his capacity for sincerity and humility.

St Paul told the Colossians that a perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding are the keys to knowing the will of God.

A perfect wisdom and understanding can only be attained when we are humble enough to know that God knows best and that we sincerely want to follow His ways even though we may not understand fully His will for us.

With humility and sincerity, we will, like St Peter, put out into the deep, and there experience the depth of God.