03/09/2026
Our First Reading strikes a similar note of upended expectation: "If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool, so as to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God." Paul reminds the Corinthians that human cleverness and self-sufficiency mean little before God, what matters is belonging to Christ, not boasting in ourselves. The Psalm affirms who truly stands worthy before God: "the clean of hand and pure of heart."
That's exactly the tension in today's Gospel. Peter is a professional fisherman being told by a carpenter to try again in broad daylight after a fruitless night. It doesn't make sense by his own expertise, yet he obeys anyway, and the abundance that follows overwhelms him, not with pride, but with the sudden awareness of his own unworthiness: "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
This is a cross many of us carry quietly: the feeling of being unequal to what God is asking of us. St. Gregory the Great, whom we honor today, felt this deeply. A monk who loved the quiet of monastic life, he was pulled, against his own wishes into the papacy during years of plague, famine, and political collapse in Rome. He felt inadequate for the task, yet responded anyway, and became one of the most influential popes in Church history, reforming the liturgy, caring for the poor, and shepherding a broken city with humility rather than self-assurance.
Peter's cross and Gregory's cross look alike: both were asked to trust obedience over their own sense of capability. Our own crosses often take this same shape a responsibility we feel unqualified for, a call that interrupts our own plans, a moment where our competence runs out and only trust remains. Jesus doesn't ask Peter to feel ready. He simply says, "Do not be afraid," and calls him forward anyway.
