Today’s gospel is reminiscent of another occasion when Jesus asked Peter to put out into the deep and lower his nets for a catch—after a similar fruitless night of fishing. A significant difference is that on that earlier occasion, Peter was somewhat reluctant, explaining: Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets. In today’s episode there is no such reticence, and Peter and the disciples simply do as they are told and cast the net again. Temptations, struggles, and the relentless trials of the spiritual journey have a way of wearing down our foolish and pointless resistance to grace. In the experience of the futility of our unaided and ever-failing efforts at saving ourselves, we are more likely—like Peter—to finally surrender to the divine assistance being offered. The resulting surrender may seem like mere resignation, and not feel very noble or holy, but it is sufficient for God’s saving love to act. As Saint Teresa of Calcutta explains: One thing Jesus asks of me: that I lean on him; that in him and only in him I put complete trust; that I surrender myself to him unreservedly. Even when all goes wrong and I feel as if I am a ship without a compass, I must give myself completely to him. I must not attempt to control God’s action; I must not count the stages in the journey he would have me make. I must not desire a clear perception of my advance upon the road, must not know precisely where I am upon the way of holiness. I ask him to make a saint of me, yet I must leave to him the choice of the saintliness itself and still more the means which leads to it.