Both of our readings today are about Love. Not the sort of Kiss-me-quick Love that may affect us when we are teenagers, but the sort of Love that we are able to control and command. It is the kind of Love that we are able to decide to give.

The recipient of our love may not be an obvious choice. In our first reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Paul demonstrates this when he gives the example of God loving him.

Why on earth would God love Paul? Earlier in the Bible we are told that Paul was originally called Saul, and he persecuted Christians. This was in the book of the Bible called The Acts of the Apostles, in chapter nine. There we are told that Saul was not a peaceful man. He was threatening murder of the Lord’s disciples, and he even went to the high priest to ask for letters he could take to the synagogues of Damascus. These letters were to give him permission to capture Christians and take them to Jerusalem.

Then Saul saw the light. He literally did. A great light shone down upon him and a voice said “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” The light was so bright he couldn’t see anything until three days afterwards.

Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The voice said “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the City, and you will be told what you are to do.”

When Saul got to Damascus, a disciple called Ananias was asked by the Lord to put his hands on Saul to restore his sight. Ananias was sceptical, because he knew about the bad things Saul had done to Christians. The Lord explained to Ananias that he had decided to make Saul an instrument of his work, and he himself would show Saul how much he would have to suffer.

Ananias laid his hands on Saul. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and his sight was restored. Saul was baptised and much to everybody’s surprise started praising Jesus in the synagogues, proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God. Saul became known as Paul, and went on to spread the Good News about Jesus, and some of his letters make up part of the New Testament in our Bibles.

Back in our reading from Corinthians, Paul suggests he is unfit to be an Apostle, because of his past, but he has been given the grace of God, and it is as a result of this unbounded love that he has spread the Good News, and the Corinthians have become believers in the resurrection of Jesus as a result.

This brings us back to our Gospel reading from Luke, and the miraculous catch of fish. Only Luke tells us about this event, and it is another example of a person being suddenly called by God to do his work. In this case it is Simon Peter. He does not think he is up to the job, and even asks Jesus to get away from him, because he was a sinful man. Jesus must have shown Simon Peter how valued he actually was though, because he and his fellow fishermen James and John left their boats to follow Jesus.

I think the story of Paul shows us how, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to love our enemies.

I used to be bullied at school when I was younger, then amazingly as the bully and I grew older, we became friends and even went cycling together.

It is well known that in the First World War, our pilots would be respectful to the German pilots they shot down and vice versa. Enemy pilots were given respectful funerals, or if still alive, were treated to a few drinks at the barracks before they were taken away as prisoners.

God’s love for us is unconditional – however undeserving we think we are, God still has hope for us and will look after us.

The Good News that Paul tells us about does not start in the New Testament. It is already there in the Old Testament too. Isaiah chapter 40, tells us: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young shall fall exhausted; But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Amen