Trinity V Sermon

July 5, 2026 | Fr. Glenn M. Spencer

“When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished… at the draught of fishes which they had taken…”

“Lord, do you not care if we perish?”

Jesus was sleeping soundly while they and their little dinghy was going down to a watery grave. Jesus woke and he rebuked and silenced the stormy sea. Note that Jesus did not say a prayer to God the Father requesting seasonable weather, he literally spoke to nature and said: “Be still. Remain quiet!” And the wind immediately ceased and a great calm settled on the waters, not because the wind has a mind and intentionality and may obey a command, but rather God’s word is the source of all being.

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Colossians 1:16-17

The text says that after he had calmed the sea, his disciples were “awestruck.” There is a quality of fear in that word, but it is not the same sort of fear they had experienced when they feared drowning. Rudolph Otto wrote a book titled The Idea of the Holy. It is a book that explores religious experience and in particular he refers to an experience he called “numinous awe.” What one experiences in the numinous is the power of a spiritual entity or a mysterious event that is terrifying and fascinating at the same time and wholly unapproachable, uncontrollable and holy. That is what is wrapped up in the experience of those men in the boat when the text says that they were frightened and awestruck. 

“Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

The Gospel for today is a prequel to that event that takes us back to the disciples earliest experience with Jesus before they were his disciples:


“And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished…”

This is what happened: a crowd was following Jesus and he commandeered Peter’s fishing boat and turned it into his pulpit. After his sermon, he took Peter and his partners fishing and all at once they caught such a load of fish that two boats began to sink. 

People in a sinking boat have different thoughts regardless of why the boat is sinking and they are mostly driven to action by self-interest. There is, for example, the kind of person whose focus would have been upon his property. This man or woman would not have been able to get the thought of the torn nets and tackle out of his mind. The cost of replacement and the loss of productive time would dominate his thoughts. His desire to save his tearing nets and maybe even his boat would drive all other concerns from mind. There is nothing worse than losing your property.

Another type of man would have been energized; he would have experienced extraordinary focus and maybe even increased physical strength at this auspicious catch of fish! The money he would make would more than repair his tearing nets; even buy new ones. This is the kind of unexpected chance, an opportunity that does not come along every day. This is the break that could push a man to the front of the market and pay off all his debts and put away something for the future. Thoughts of enriching himself by seizing this opportunity would drive all other concerns from this man’s mind. There is nothing worse than losing an opportunity to get ahead in life.


And there is yet another man whose fear of losing life or limb would keep him at the back of any line, out of harm’s way. The fear of slipping and losing one’s step and falling while trying to land this massive, unexpected catch of fish is reasonable enough with such dangerous work. This man would have experienced all the original fear of the men who were in the storm-tossed boat with Jesus that Rembrandt presents. This man can think of nothing worse than losing his life and that makes him the saddest of all. There are worse things in life than dying. Living a lie is worse than death. And living someone else's life is not living at all. Some people move through life merely existing and never really living. It is a good thing that they were attentive, but what distinguished those responses from Peter’s response was that they were enamored by the empirical, by the experience, but they never understood it. Motivated by fear or character flaw, by bias, they fail to grasp the meaning of the empirical — of this great catch of fish.

But Peter’s response was entirely different: 

“When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished.”

Peter was not so entranced by the empirical and for whatever reasons, he was not distracted by fear of bodily harm, death, or greed — and he grasped the intelligibility of the empirical event — a sudden flash of insight into the meaning of this great catch of fish that changed Peter’s world. What did Peter understand?

“Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished.”

The reason Peter felt an immediate need to get away from Jesus was his sudden realization that this Galilean was powerful beyond anything he had ever seen in his life. But not mere power. Peter was at once overwhelmed and baffled by the experience of holiness. Whatever Peter realized about the identity of Jesus at this point, this much is true: not only did Peter know that Jesus was a miracle worker, but he was working miracles that only God could work according to the Old Testament. What Jesus just did, only God can do. What precisely did Jesus do?

I want you to see this: Peter had seen men spot fish before. He did not fall down on his knees because Jesus was the most extraordinary fish finder he had ever seen. This miracle was not a matter of Jesus seeing the fish that the other fishermen missed. Be attentive to the text. Be intelligent about the text. Being intelligent is not all that complex; all you have to do is to ask a question: “What is it? What’s going on here? What does this mean?” And this is the intelligibility, the point, the meaning: there were no fish there when Jesus said, “cast your nets” — Jesus created the fish by fiat, right then and there, and Peter knew it. At that point, at his first encounter with the divine Messiah, Peter grasped deep within himself that God was manifesting himself through this Galilean. Peter wished that he would go away because God’s holiness is an unbearable sight. And in fact the text indicates that Peter’s partners, James and John also realized that Jesus didn’t just see the fish, he created them. When they finally got their catch to land, the three of them turned their backs on the boats and nets and tackle and on the best catch of fish they had ever seen in their lives. The Bible says, “they left everything and followed Jesus.” And that is the difference between remaining enamored with the empirical and grasping the intelligible, grasping the meaning of the empirical. That is the difference between merely existing and really living. 

Regardless of how it may appear, we are not at the mercy of nature nor are our lives charmed by good luck or cursed by bad luck. Life is not ruled by chance. The meaning of my life is not the sum of all my good choices weighed against the sum of all my bad choices. Life is God’s gift, a holy God, and God Almighty, who loves us and has come into this life as the Son of Mary to fetch us all home. 

What kind of man or woman are you? Are you the man who thinks the worst thing in life is losing your possessions? Or are you the man or the woman who thinks the worst thing in life is missing out on the opportunity to get to the front of the line and getting ahead in life? Or maybe you’re the man or woman who lives her life in fear of death and never really lives life to its fullest? Make today the day you decide who you are. When you come to the Altar to receive the Blessed Sacrament, why not say to Jesus, “Lord I want to be the person you want me to be. Whatever you want me to do, I will do. I don’t care what others will say. Or what others think of me. I only want to please you. I give you my life Lord, my whole life.”

“And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.”