Real Autonomy!

Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost

V. Rev. Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org  

In today`s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11) we hear how Jesus helped the fishermen get a huge catch of fish, after they had laboured all night in vain. They were amazed by this! It was a sign to them that they were in the presence of Divinity. Who else but God could give them such a huge catch when they had not been able to get anything at all, experienced fishermen though they were.

For Simon Peter this discovery of the nature of Christ as truly God as well as truly man was like an explosion in his soul! He fell down at Jesus’ knees and begged Him to leave because in His presence Peter’s sinfulness was more than he could bear. He seemed to fear that Jesus holiness would have upon him the same effect as a flame has upon a moth - that it would simply burn him up! This frightening realization was followed by the revelation of Divine Love: Peter found himself accepted by Christ, comforted by Him and summoned to keep on growing. For one day, said Jesus, Peter would be a fisher of men. He, and all the other disciples, would be guiding human souls into the Kingdom of holiness and light.

This wonderful event showed the disciples and us how much we need God’s help. We have our skill, our education and experience, but without God’s blessing and providence none of these are enough to achieve what we need. It is obvious that skill and education, experience and hard work are important. We must do all we can on our part and not simply rely upon things falling into our laps. This is not a world where laziness pays off. When it is time to pay the piper, lazy and careless people find themselves penniless and hopeless. This is true, but equally true is the fact that this is a world where we need God! We must cooperate - work together with Him - in order to succeed and get ahead.

Many people, especially those who have a heritage of Christian values, are so used to this thought, that it is simply taken for granted. We don’t stop to think about its importance. And things that are taken for granted do not have much effect upon what we think, say and do. Thus it is quite common for people - even people like us in the Christian community - to leave God out of their plans and simply do what they want to do. For example: how many Christians still keep Church as normal part of their plans for Sunday?

Another sign of the decline of Christian values is the popularity of ways of thinking which declare that human beings are autonomous - that their power rests within themselves, that they can just do whatever they set out to do. There is some value in such thinking. We do need to see ourselves as being strong and capable of dealing with whatever life brings us. Yet even these "self-help" philosophies must reckon with destiny - that certain things will happen whether or not we accept them or prepare for them.

Christians are invited to ponder deeply upon our dependence upon God. This does not take away our sense of being strong and free. Instead it puts us in touch with reality. We see that our destiny is dependent upon God and we can work with Him to achieve things that are truly valuable and lasting.

Version Ukrainian: PDF format