Thursday 22nd Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Official Readings available at http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Colossians 1:9-14
Haydock New Testament

Therefore we also, from the day that we heard it, cease not to pray for you, and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom,[1] and spiritual understanding: That you may walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing:[2] being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God: Strengthened with all might, according to the power of his glory, in all patience and long-suffering with joy. Giving thanks to God, the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins:[3]

Psalm 97:2-6 (Ps 98 NAB)
DR Challoner

The Lord hath made known his salvation:
he hath revealed his justice in the sight of the Gentiles.
He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing joyfully to God, all the earth;
make melody, rejoice and sing.
Sing praise to the Lord on the harp,
on the harp, and with the voice of a psalm:
With long trumpets, and sound of cornet.
Make a joyful noise before the Lord our king:

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 5:1-11
Haydock New Testament

[4]And it came to pass, that when the multitudes pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Genesareth, And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.[5] And going into one of the ships that was Simon’s, he desired him to thrust out a little from the land.  And sitting down, he taught the multitudes out of the ship.[6] Now when he had ceased to speak, he said to Simon:

Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.[7]

And Simon answering, said to him:

Master, we have labored all the night, and have taken nothing: but at thy word I will let down the net.[8]

And when they had done this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes, and their net was breaking.[9] And they beckoned to their partners that were in the other ship, that they should come and help them.  And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they were almost sinking.[10] Which when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying:

Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.[11]

For he was wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: And so were also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners.  And Jesus saith to Simon:

Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt taking men.[12]

And when they had brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed him.[13]

Haydock Commentary Colossians 1:9-14
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

 

Footnotes    (↵ returns to text)
  1. In all wisdom.  He begins by an admonition against false teachers, who it is likely, says S. Chrys. with their philosophical notions mixed errors and fables.  Wi.↵
  2. Worthy of God: αξιως του κυριου.  So S. Ambrose and the Greek doctors; or thus, worthily, pleasing God, and this not by faith only, but fruitful in every good work.  Ibid. — God, in[1] all things pleasing him.  This is the construction of the Latin by the Greek.  Wi.↵
  3. It is through the blood of Christ, and not by the law of Moses, that we are freed from the power of death.  If the law could have saved us, the coming of Christ would have been useless.  See then, he says, if it be proper to engage under a law which is so inefficacious.  Calmet. — From this verse and from v. 12, et alibi passim, we are taught that we are not only by imputation made partakers of Christ’s benefits, but are by his grace made worthy thereof, and deserve our salvation condignly, ex condigno.  B.↵
  4. What S. Luke here gives till v. 10, is mentioned purposely to shew on what occasion, and by what miracle, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, were called.  Maldon.↵
  5. Washing their nets.  See S. Matt. iv. 18. and S. Mark i. 16, where it is said, that Christ saw them when they were casting their nets; i.e. some of them were casting, others washing, or mending, their nets.  Wi.↵
  6. Why is it mentioned that there were two ships; that one of them was Simon Peter’s, that Christ went into that one, and sat down in it, and sitting he taught out of that ship?  No doubt, answer many of the ancient commentators, to shew that the Church was figured by the bark of Peter, and that in it is the chair of Christ, a permanent authority, prefigured by Christ’s sitting down, and the true word of God.↵
  7. Επαναγαγε εις το βαθος. Put back from whence you have just now returned.  Where you failed without Christ, with Christ you will prove successful.  Now is the proper time, when you act in my presence, and according to my orders; before it was not, when you followed your own, and not my will.  Maldon. — S. Austin interprets the text, Launch out into the deep, as spoken of distant nations, to whom the gospel was afterwards delivered: tolle signum in gentes, ad eas, quæ propè, et ad eas quæ longè.  Isai. v. 26. and xi. 12.↵
  8. Though these words of S. Peter seem to express his little hope of success, as he had been toiling (κοπιασαντες) the whole night, the most favourable time for fishing, yet they were intended by S. Peter to shew his great confidence, that notwithstanding his bad success, he was willing to obey; he relied on his words, and let go his net in the same place where before he had been disappointed; and the event proved that the obedience and confidence of Peter were not in vain.  Maldon. &c.↵
  9. When Christ commanded Peter to let go the net, as great a quantity of fishes were taken as this Lord of the land and sea wished.  For the voice of the Lord is the voice of power, at the command of which, in the beginning of the world, light and every created thing sprang into existence.  This it was that so much astonished Peter.  S. Greg. Naz. c. xxxi. — The net is broken, but the fishes are not lost, because the Lord preserves his servants among the scandals (schisms and heresies) of his enemies.  Ven. Bede.↵
  10. The other ship was probably at such a distance from them, that they could not be heard, had they called out to them; and this also is another proof of the greatness of the miracle, that though the other ship was fishing in the same place, though a little removed, they could catch nothing.  Maldonatus. — This also shews that Peter was to call in other co-labourers, and that all were to come into Peter’s ship.  S. Ambrose in Luc.↵
  11. Such was the excess of S. Peter’s humility, that he judged himself unworthy the presence of Christ, and by this rendered himself more worthy.  So the centurion, for a similar act of self-abasement, merited to hear from Truth itself, that he was preferred to all Israel.  Euthymius is however of opinion, that S. Peter desired Christ to leave him through fear, lest some evil should befall him, because he was not worthy of his presence.  In the same manner as the widow of Sarepta thought her son had died, because she was not worthy of the presence of Elias.  3 Kings xvii. 18.  Maldonatus.↵
  12. Jesus Christ answers the thought of S. Peter, that instead of any loss or evil coming to him, he should, on the contrary, receive a great reward, by being appointed a fisher of men; and, as he had taken so many fishes by the divine assistance, so he should take in his net innumerable souls, not so much by his own industry, as by the divine grace and assistance.  Maldonatus.↵
  13. We may suppose that these four apostles, like Andrew, followed Jesus Christ at the first call, but without attaching themselves to him; and that now they attached themselves to him, never to leave him more.↵

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