“The Sufferings of This Time Are Not Worthy to Be Compared”
The liturgy of this Friday after the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost invites the faithful to contemplate two seemingly disparate yet deeply connected mysteries: the groaning of creation in hope and the divine call to forsake all for the sake of the Kingdom.
In Romans 8:18–23, St. Paul lifts our gaze beyond the temporal afflictions we endure to the “glory that is to come,” a glory not merely for ourselves but for the entire creation. We live, as it were, in the tension between suffering and redemption. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” This “groaning” is not a cry of despair, but of anticipation—a labor pain that longs for the birth of the new creation.
St. John Chrysostom, in his homilies on Romans, beautifully remarks on this:
“Paul personifies the creation to show how universal is the expectation of deliverance… not as though irrational beings could groan, but to show the magnitude of the calamity, and the longing for restoration.”
(Homily XIV on Romans)
This Friday, the Church invites us to enter into that groaning—not to be discouraged by it, but to interpret our sufferings as birth pangs of a world that awaits transfiguration. The faithful are not exempt from this suffering, but rather, as firstfruits of the Spirit, we are especially marked by it, since we have begun already to taste what is to come.
“Launch Out into the Deep”
In Luke 5:1–11, we encounter St. Peter in his boat, weary after a fruitless night of labor. It is in this moment of discouragement and emptiness that Christ appears—not only to teach the multitudes, but to call Peter to a deeper surrender.
“Master, we have labored all night and caught nothing; but at Thy word I will let down the net.”
This moment is a turning point. The miraculous draught of fishes is not just a marvel—it is a sign. A sign that grace works not in spite of our insufficiency, but precisely through it. Peter’s response to the miracle is not triumph but contrition: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
St. Ambrose writes:
“Peter does not deny his nature, but acknowledges the weakness of flesh; he saw the divinity of Christ, and knew his own unworthiness.”
(Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, Book IV)
It is striking that the Lord responds not by departing, but by calling: “Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”The same man who felt unworthy is chosen to be a fisher of souls.
The Mystery of Suffering and Vocation
What unites the epistle and the gospel is this: both Paul and Peter reveal that our weakness is the very place where God’s power is made manifest. In the mystery of suffering—whether it is the suffering of a barren creation or the spiritual emptiness of a fruitless night—the Lord comes, not to remove the trial, but to reveal His glory through it.
St. Gregory the Great, commenting on this Gospel, says:
“When the Lord fills the nets, it is a figure of Holy Church gathering souls into salvation… and He chooses fishermen, that the work of divine grace may shine more clearly, since it is not by eloquence, but by obedience, that the Church is built.”
(Hom. 5 in Evangelia)
Here, then, is our lesson for this Friday in the green stillness of the Time after Pentecost: the Christian life is one of patient endurance (patientia), not for its own sake, but because we await the revealing of the glory of the children of God. We groan, we labor, we feel our nothingness—yet Christ calls us still. He calls us into the deep, not merely of the sea, but of the divine life.
Let us, like Peter, heed the call to cast out into the deep (duc in altum), trusting not in our own skill but in the word of Christ. And let us, like Paul, await the glorious liberty that is to be revealed in us, knowing that “the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.”
Prayerful Reflection:
O Lord, who called Simon Peter from his nets and comforted Paul amidst the groaning of creation, grant that we too may cast aside fear, endure with hope, and follow Thee unreservedly, trusting that all things work unto good for those who love Thee. Amen.