Being Renewed from Exhaustion and Frustrations

September 4, 2025 – Thursday of the 22^nd Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090425.cfm)

Exhausted because of many frustrations? Burnt out because of your disappointments? Felt hopeless because of failures? When things in life seemed to be so overwhelming for us, one could feel to be at the edge of surrendering. We would want to cry out loud just to express the turmoil we experience from within.

Those who feel so lonely and alone, their nights seemed to be endless. When we too feel that no one is on our side, to listen and accompany us – it pushes us towards desperation. No wonder, one could feel so lost becoming more unaware of what is happening inside and outside of us.

Simon who led a group of fishermen caught nothing, not even a single catch of fish. They have worked all night, yet, there was none. It wasn’t just a failure. It was more of a disaster for a fisherman like Simon and his friends. They had nothing to bring home. If this happened every night, hopeless, they will be.

Yet, these was a turning point from such exhaustion and frustrations. Someone got into his boat. It was Jesus who got into Simon’s boat and began teaching the people. That very boat of failure and disappointment of Simon became an instrument of hope and healing for the crowd of people. Indeed, the Lord transformed that boat into something wonderful and beyond the expectation of Simon.

Simon must have wondered at the words of Jesus, “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” As a fisherman himself, it was completely absurd. They had been working all night but caught nothing. Yet, Simon who must have listened to what Jesus had been teaching, trusted the words of Jesus despite his exhaustion and frustrations in life.

Allowing Jesus to be in that boat brought changes in the life of Simon. The very presence of God became an assurance to Simon in the midst of the troubles and in his search of something good in his life.

The invitation of Jesus was a call to faith. “To go into the deep water and to lower down the nets” was an invitation to dwell deeper into the most essentials of Simon’s life. It was an invitation to lower down his comforts and even pretensions. It was a call to leave behind at the shore his uncertainties, fears, failures, guilt and sins.

Simon did all these and he found God’s tremendous goodness. He found love and generosity of God to him symbolized by the great catch of fish. It humbled Simon. He became more aware of himself and his unworthiness before Jesus. This realization became the opportunity for Jesus to make more wonderful things in the life Simon.

This story of encounter with God and call to faith led to change and to mission. We realize that real encounter with God or to allow God to be with us in our boats of frustrations and guilt would strip us from our fears and anxieties. Such encounter makes us see how sinful and unworthy we are before God.

Yet, it is in this moment of humility and honesty that we find God most merciful, loving and forgiving. Today, we are invited through these following ways.

First, allow the Lord to be with us even in our frustrations and failures, in our guilt and shame. Let the Lord teach us. Allow the lord to remind us how much we are being loved.

Second, allow the Lord to challenge us and to shake our pretensions for us. This will make us discover more ourselves before the presence of God.

Third, allow God to bring change in our life and to make wonderful things even out of our messy and troubled life story. Hinaut pa.