Week of February 7, 2010

The Olive Branch	Fr. Seamus Murtagh, Pastor
Launch Out into the Deep   For a long time I never ate whole fish. I was afraid that the bones would stick in my throat.  One day a friend showed me how to split it, take out the bone, and enjoy fish. From then on the entire world of sea food and its wealth opened up for me. I had expanded my horizons. This is a simple example but it illustrates the gospel.  Jesus tells Peter to “launch out into the deep.” The shallow waters were barren, but the ocean depths were teeming with fish. Jesus was not giving advice to Peter about fishing since Peter was the fisherman. Rather, Jesus is urging Peter to move beyond the community of the Jews and begin working with Gentiles. By moving out into uncharted territory, Jesus is encouraging Peter to broaden his horizons, Peter listened, his ministry flourished and Gentiles flocked to the church in droves.  The French philosopher Michael Foucault said that all of us have a grid in our mind, by which we make distinctions between the self and the other; between us and them; this is part of our thinking, part of the categories of our mind. The other is unfamiliar, strange, unknown, so we would rather stick with the familiar, move in our same old grooves.  But if we do venture out into the unknown, the results can be amazing.  My Jesuit school in Mumbai used the same words “launch out into the deep” to challenge students to expand their horizons through education. For a large part, this country is made up of people who moved beyond their shores and were courageous enough to settle in a foreign land. The gospel of today implies that a truly “dynamic” spirituality impels you to launch out into the deep and be willing to take the road not traveled before.   Fr. John DiMello Parochial Vicar
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