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Bonaventure’s Commentary on Luke’s Gospel Thirty Days of Reflection and Prayer 18 Day Six: Read and meditate on Luke 5:1-11 Luke 5:8 reads: “But when Simon Peter saw the miraculous catch of fish, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying: Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful person.” Bonaventure tells us: He was humbled at the sight of the miracle and magnified the divine majesty and rightly so, for Philippians 2:10 reads: “At the name of Jesus every knee must bend,” etc. And Isaiah 45:23 has: “Every knee will be bowed to me, and every tongue will swear.” And Peter did bend his knee, in a sense inviting others to do likewise, so that he may say with the Psalmist: “Come, let us adore and fall prostrate,” etc. (94:6). He had been so humbled, cutting himself down to his proper small size, so that the text continues: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinner,” as if he were saying: I am not such a person that I am worthy to be together with you. He said this out of faith and reverence like that centurion in Matthew 8:8: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” Now Peter said this because he had seen the power, but had not yet perceived Christ’s mercy, of which Matthew 9:13 says: “I have not come to call the just, but sinners.” Therefore, Augustine says: “Peter is speaking as a fisherman. He had the Lord and God of salvation with him and said: ‘Depart from me,’ as if a sick person might say to the physician who wants to cure him: ‘Get away from me, because I am sick.’” And Gregory says: “Peter, if you truly consider yourself a sinner , then you must not cast the Lord aside.” But certainly by humbling himself in this manner, Peter did not cast the Lord aside, but rather drew him to his side. Isaiah 66:2 says: “To whom will I have regard but to him who is poor and little, is of contrite spirit, and trembles at my words?” 19 Reflection Luke-Acts1 does not relegate to the dustbins of church history the fact that the two great Apostles, Peter and Paul, were sinners. Three times in Acts Luke has Paul acknowledge that he persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. But Christ Jesus forgave him. In the Pauline tradition we read: “I, Paul, was a blasphemer and persecutor and bitter adversary , but now I have obtained mercy…. So that in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all patience to train those who will believe in him for life everlasting” (1 Tim 1:13-16). Peter may be the chief apostle in Luke’s Gospel, the one to whom the risen Lord Jesus made a special appearance (24:34). But he also denied Jesus three times. As Bonaventure comments on Luke 22:62, Peter’s bitter tears “flowed from the bitterness of his great compunction.” Wherefore, Ambrose notes: “He wept in a most bitter manner, so that his tears might wash away his sin. And you, likewise, should wipe away your sin with your tears.” Prayer O God, as you remind us in Ephesians 2 “you have built your church on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief corner stone.” Help us to imitate the apostles’ faith, boldness, courage, and perseverance . Deepen our faith in you as the fount of mercy to us sinners. May we get up after our denials and hasten, like Peter, away from the tomb of sin and to the new life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 Contemporary Biblical scholars believe that Luke wrote both The Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles. ...

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