Bosco Gutiérrez Cortina, a wealthy executive in Mexico, shares a story of when he was kidnapped. The kidnappers wanted to extort a large amount of money from his family. They kept him in a room with no windows and no clocks; they piped in the same hour-long music mix repeatedly; they communicated with him only through written notes. After a few days of this, his nerves were completely raw.
Then they gave him a note asking if he would like a drink - whatever kind he wanted. He couldn't believe it. A ray of hope. He wrote down his favorite cocktail. Then he waited. All he could think about was the drink. He started to fantasize about it, to dream about it. It became his idol. When they finally brought him the drink, he held it in his hands like a treasure. He smelled it. He gazed at it. He imagined what it would taste like, building up his anticipation to the maximum.
When he was about to take his first sip, a strange thing happened. He heard a voice in his interior. Somehow, he later said, he knew it was God's voice. It said, "Give me the drink. Offer it up." He couldn't believe it. All of his energy and attention and hope had been focused on that drink. He just stared at it, wanting it. He heard God's voice again: "Offer me the drink." He battled with himself interiorly. Finally, he realized that if he took the drink, he would be giving in to the kidnappers. If he gave it to God, he would be asserting his own dignity and integrity. He gave it to God. He didn't drink it. He poured it out. From that moment on, he began to recover his interior strength. Eventually he actually escaped.
When God asks us to step out of our comfort zone, He knows what He's doing. Just as He knew what He was doing when He asked Peter to put out into deep water. What has God been asking you to give him? What area of your comfort zone has God been trying to expand? Our comfort zone is made of three main sectors: 1) our relationship with God; 2) our relationships with other people; and 3) our own character, our own inner integrity. Usually, Jesus asks us to put out into deeper water in one sector at a time. Which is He pointing to now for you? Is it your relationship with Him?
Maybe you have had a thought in the back of your mind for a long time that you should pray more, or better. Maybe God has been nudging you to come to confession, and you have been ignoring him. Maybe he has been gently inviting you to study your faith more, to get to know Him better, and you have been resisting.
Is it your relationships with others? Maybe there is someone you need to forgive, or ask forgiveness from. Maybe you need to cut off or pull back a relationship that's dragging you down. Maybe you need to renew your commitment to someone you've been neglecting or taking for granted. Is it in your own character and interior integrity?
Maybe you need to leave behind a hidden habit of dishonesty or self-indulgence. Maybe God is asking you to discipline a particular area of your life. Maybe you need to leave behind mediocrity and strive again for excellence in one of your responsibilities.
Jesus is asking each one of us to put out into deep water, to step out of our comfort zone, not in order to torture us, but because He loves us. We may not understand, but it's OK, because we're not alone. He is in our boats, as He was with Peter, strengthening us. He will never leave us, as He will prove once again in this Mass.
Let us trust Him. Let us give Him whatever He asks. Let us allow His command to each of our hearts revolutionize our lives.
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