Sermons
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Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C (4)
In today’s first reading from Isaiah chapter 6, we heard about the call of the prophet. The scene was grand. God was seated high on a lofty throne. His garment filled the Temple. There were angels there singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” Isaiah experienced the holiness of God. Perhaps we can best understand this as God’s separation from all that is not filled with His Presence. The door shook, the Temple was filled with smoke, incense, and Isaiah became very much aware of his sinfulness. “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Isaiah was convinced that he was doomed. How could he, a sinful man, be in the presence of holiness. Certainly he would be punished for his sins. Instead, an angel takes an ember from the fire of incense and touches Isaiah’s lips. His sins have been purged, he has been made holy, separate for the Lord, fit for the mission the Lord has set aside for him.
In a similar way, Peter, James and John had an experience of the holiness of the Lord. How else could we explain their decisions to leave their boats full of fish and follow Jesus? It had to be more than the miraculous catch of fish. If this were about the fish, they would have stayed with their boats and brought the fish to market. It also had to be more than the teaching of the Lord from their boats. These were wonderful words, but they also experienced so much more, so much that they changed their lives. What they had experienced was the magnetism of the Lord, the holiness of the Christ. At the same time, Peter and most probably the others, had the horrible recollection of their own sinfulness. “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” But Jesus had a mission for Peter. His sins would be forgiven. The Lord’s holiness was infinitely more powerful than Peter’s sins.
So, also, we have an experience of the Lord. We are drawn in by the Lord’s holiness. “Holy, holy, holy,” we say at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer, the Prayer where Jesus will be present on our altar. At the same time, we recognize our own sinfulness. At the beginning of the Mass we say that we are sinful people who do not deserve to be in the presence of the Holy One. But like Isaiah and like Peter, the Lord heals us from our sins because he also has a mission for us. We are to bring His Presence to the world. Therefore we also must be holy.
When we think about a person who is holy we are inclined to call up an image of an imaginary, plastic saint. Unrealistic depictions of saints destroy the credibility of the one whose holiness is recognize by the church. The saints were real people, with tempers that had to be controlled and vices that had to be conquered. For example, St. Matthew was a tax collector and as such a thief. St. Jerome was known to have had a very bad tempter. And St. Augustine. He tried it all. He had a child out of wedlock. He had numerous other pseudo relationships. He was an arrogant philosopher until he was attracted by the simple words of St. Ambrose of Milan.
The saints could all tell the Lord to leave them because they were sinful. But God
needed them for His Mission. God also needs us for His Mission. That means that we have to fight against any negative inclinations in our lives and fight for the Kingdom. That means that we often have to leave the comfort of the fish we have just caught behind us and follow the Lord. Fish we have caught, what fish? The material goods of our lives are fish we have worked hard for and finally reeled in. We need to recognize that the meaning of life is far more than the amount of fish in our boats, or our homes. The meaning of life comes from our responding to the holiness of Christ. Our lives have meaning when we ourselves become holy.
If you and I can have the courage to make God the focus of our lives, then we can accept and complete the mission he has set aside for each of us.
We must view every action of our lives as participating in and flowing from the holiness of the Lord. That action might be significant like the decision to raise another child for the Lord, or it may appear to be minor, like helping the elderly man down the block by cutting his grass. It may be significant like the decision to commit to weekly volunteer work for the poor, or it may appear to be minor like committing to the Catholic Ministry Appeal. All our decisions are major initiatives for the Kingdom of God when they flow from His holiness.
Most of the time saints and even the Lord are pictured as having haloes. This depiction has lost its meaning for modern people. The meaning of the halo is the representation of the holiness that flows from deep within a person. A halo isn’t a circular piece of metal. A halo is a union with God that overflows from the life of a person committed to the Lord. A halo is a glow, a radiance of the Divine Life within someone. Those of us who experienced Pope St. John Paul II remember a man who radiated holiness, a man with a halo.
We are called to have a halo. We are called not just to witness the holiness of God, but to be purified by his holiness so that we ourselves might be holy. We are called to holiness like Isaiah and Peter and the rest because the Lord has a m ission for each of us.
What is this mission? It is the mission to give the world the unique reflection of God that only each of us can provide. It is the mission to be our best selves.
May we have the courage to listen, to experience, to leave our boatload of fish and to follow the Lord.
Thnk you Msgr. Pelligrino
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C (3)
One spring afternoon not long after she and her new husband John moved into the community, Marianne Siebert of Florence, Kansas, decided to visit their elderly neighbors, the McLindens, a mile and a half up the road. The weather was perfect so Marianne saddled her 12-year-old Arabian stallion. Upon arrival, she dismounted and, reins in hand, approached the back door. Apparently, her neighbor had polished the glass in the storm door, because it shone like a mirror. Marianne knocked twice and waited with her horse, Phar, at her shoulder. She decided her neighbors weren’t home and started to leave when she noticed that Phar was staring at the gray stallion in the glass with fascination. He squealed and pawed. So did the other stallion. He was staring, of course, at his own reflection.
Marianne tugged on Phar’s reins, and he refused to move. Marianne was beginning to get a bad feeling. She became more forceful and tugged and slapped Phar with the reins. Then he moved all right. He swung around, and with both hind feet, bashed in the door! Glass flew down the inside stairs, the metal grillwork caved in. At that point, Marianne was sweating bullets and was just about to beat a hasty retreat when, from inside the house, she heard Mrs. McLinden call to her husband, “Bud, I think there’s someone at the door.”
“I could have strangled Phar,” says Marianne. “Instead, I helped Mr. and Mrs. McLinden clean up the glass, promised to pay for the door and got out of there. My reputation, however, soon was widespread throughout the county: `If Marianne Siebert comes to visit, be sure and get there after the first knock, or she’ll kick in your door.'” (1)
We often speak of opportunity knocking. Someone has said that if opportunity came disguised as temptation, one knock would be enough. That may be so. We also think of Christ standing at the door knocking. The only handle is on the inside. He does not crash down the door. We must open it ourselves.
These two images ” opportunity knocking and Christ knocking ” converge in our lesson for the day. Two fishing boats stand empty by the side of a lake. The fishermen have given up for the day. They are standing near the boats cleaning out their nets. Their faces are weary with discouragement. They are not fishing for sport. This is their living and they are not making much progress.
Any of you who have ever been sales people know the feeling. Prospect after prospect says no. Someone has said that is why they have movies in the daytime ” for salespeople who can’t handle one more rejection.
Any who have started your own business know the feeling. There are many rewards, but also many times when the wolf stands poised at your door. Farmers know what it’s like. You realize with a sinking feeling that this year’s crop is not measuring up. And it’s not because you haven’t worked. That’s the frustrating part. You’ve worked harder than ever. But the rain came at the wrong time. One week sooner and you would have had a bumper crop.
Even our boys and girls know about times of discouragement. You’ve worked hard preparing for a test in school. But somehow you seemed to have studied the wrong assignment. You had hoped for an A, but now you’ll settle just to pass. We’ve all been there, haven’t we?
A troubled man paid a visit to his rabbi. A wise and good old rabbi, as all rabbis try to be. “Rabbi,” said he, wringing his hands, “I am a failure. More than half the time I do not succeed in doing what I must do.”
“Oh?” said the rabbi.
“Please say something wise, rabbi,” said the man.
After much pondering, the rabbi spoke as follows: “Ah, my son, I give you wisdom: Go and look on page 930 of THE NEW YORK TIMES ALMANAC for the year 1970, and you will find peace of mind maybe.”
“Ah,” said the man, and he went away and did that thing.
Now this is what he found: The listing of the lifetime batting averages of all the greatest baseball players. Ty Cobb, the greatest slugger of them all, had a lifetime average of only .367. Even Babe Ruth didn’t do so good.
So the man went back to the rabbi and said in a questioning tone: “Ty Cobb ” .367 ” that’s it?”
“Right,” said the rabbi. “Ty Cobb ” .367. He got a hit once out of every three times at bat. He didn’t even bat .500 ” so what can you expect already?”
“Ah,” said the man who thought he was a wretched failure because only half the time he did not succeed at what he must do. (2)
All of us get discouraged at times. We can sympathize with these fisherman standing beside their boats with nothing to show for their labors. All they can do now is clean their nets and hope for a better day tomorrow.
THEN, INTO THE SCENE STEPS JESUS. What powerful words ” into the scene steps Jesus. This is the testimony of former major league baseball player Dave Dravecky, who is coping with the loss of his pitching arm to cancer. He could be finished psychologically and physically dealing with such a devastating burden, but into the scene stepped Jesus. Dravecky puts it this way, “I am not getting through the loss of my arm because I am a great coper. I’m getting through it because I have a Father in heaven who is a great giver.”
An old lady in a land hostile to the Christian faith was thrown into prison because of her religion. She was frightened and alone, but into the scene stepped Jesus. Instead of being bitter or frightened, she learned to thank God for her confinement. “Now I can be alone with the Lord Jesus,” she explains.
According to a legend, some lads were visiting that famous artist, Leonardo da Vinci. One of them knocked over a stack of canvases. This upset the artist because he was working very quietly and sensitively. He became angry, threw his brush, and hurled some harsh words at the hapless little fellow, who ran crying from the studio. The artist was now alone again, and he tried to continue his work. He was trying to paint the face of Jesus, but he couldn’t do it. His creativity had stopped. It’s hard to hold anger and Jesus into your heart at the same time. Wouldn’t it be great if every time the specter of domestic violence or violence of any kind raised its ugly head, we could say, “Into the scene stepped Jesus”?
Evangelist John Wesley was stopped one night by a highwayman who robbed the Methodist leader of all his money. Wesley said to the man, “If the day should come that you desire to leave this evil way and live for God, remember that `the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.'”
Some years later, Wesley was stopped by a man after a church service. “Do you remember me?” the man asked. “I robbed you one night, and you told me that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. I have trusted Christ, and He has changed my life.” This reformed highwayman was just one of many persons through the centuries who were headed down the wrong road until Jesus stepped into the scene. (3)
Here is the answer to all discouragement, all disillusionment, all debasement. Let Jesus step into the scene.
Clarence Darrow, the great criminal lawyer of another day, had among his friends a young minister. This seems strange, because, as you remember, Darrow was usually thought of as an atheist, infidel, agnostic or what have you.
They were talking one day and Mr. Darrow began to reminisce.. He talked of his career and some of the famous trials in which he had been the lawyer for the defense. He said, “This has been an exciting life.” He had made at least a comfortable fortune and modestly he guessed he might be regarded somewhat of a success.
Then Mr. Darrow asked, “Would you like to know my favorite Bible verse?” His friend said, “Indeed I would.” Mr. Darrow said, “You will find it in Luke 5:5 (our lesson for the day): “We have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.” He added, “In spite of my success that verse seems to sum up the way I feel about life.” (4) Mr. Darrow, for all his accomplishments, still had an emptiness in his life ” an emptiness that only Christ can fill.
These fishermen in our story from Luke’s Gospel had toiled all night and had caught nothing. They were weary of mind and body. Then Jesus stepped into the scene. Notice what Jesus told them to do. He told them to launch out into the deep. He told them to throw their nets on the other side of the boat. WHAT HE WAS REALLY TELLING THEM TO DO WAS TO EXERCISE THEIR FAITH. Faith in him, faith in their own abilities as fishermen, faith in the abundance of the seas. It was Peter who spoke up: “Lord we’ve toiled all night and have caught nothing, but at your word, we will do it.” Jesus restored their faith, and that was precisely what they needed at that particular moment in their lives.
Did you know that many of us need that same word from Christ? Do you know the biggest barrier to success for most people? It is the fear of launching out. It is the fear of change. It is our reluctance to take action.
We are not happy with our lives, we are dissatisfied with our work, we are discouraged and disillusioned. We feel that life is passing us by and what do we do about it? Nothing! Experts tell us that the majority of people in our land have a built-in resistance to change. We are afraid to rock the boat. Afraid to start that new business we’ve been dreaming about for years. Afraid to follow that dream of returning to school. Afraid to build that dream house. Afraid to take that trip around the world. Afraid to say, “I love you.” And Christ steps into our lives and says, “Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Launch out into the deep. Put down your nets.” That’s what the disciples did and you know what happened. They brought in so many fish they nearly sank their boats. It would not have happened if they had not exercised their faith.
There is a story from sailing-ship days about a vessel stranded off the coast of South America ” unable to advance because there was no wind. Week after week went by. The sailors were dying of thirst when another schooner drifted close enough to read their frantic signals for help. Back came the answer: “Let down your buckets!” When they did, they found water fit to drink beneath their keel. Far from the coast though they were, the fresh water current from the mighty Amazon River surrounded them. All they had to do was reach for it.
Our lesson for today says to us: cast your nets. Let down your buckets. Don’t be afraid to exercise your faith. This is still a wonderful, abundant world that God has created for us. Trust Christ’s word and launch out into the deep ” whatever that means in your life. We are not alone. Let Christ step onto the stage of your life. Answer the door to his knock. He will not break down the door, but if we will trust him, he will give us new life.
1. “Oh No, Not Now!” EQUUS, April 1994, pp. 48-49.
2. Robert Fulghum, ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN, (New York: Villard Books, 1988).
3. Warren W. Wiersbe, BE REAL (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1972), p. 12.
4. SERMONS ILLUSTRATED.
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C (2)
Children
Object: A picture of Neil Armstrong or another astronaut walking on the moon. If you do not have a copy, it can be obtained at the library.
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you remember watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon? It happened long before you were born. If there was someone on the moon now, You could not see it by sitting on your front porch, but if you have a television set then you probably watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. I am going to ask your mothers and fathers and all of the other people who are here this morning to raise their hands if they saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. [Have a show of hands.] Can you imagine that? Almost everyone here saw that happen. They are witnesses that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Do you think that you could find anyone who would say that Neil Armstrong did not walk on the moon, and someone here would believe him? I don’t think so. These people are witnesses to what happened, and they believe that a man, several men, have walked on the moon.
St. Paul remembered the importance of witnesses when he wrote his letter to the people in the city of Corinth. He told them about all of the people who had seen Jesus after the resurrection so that they would know they could believe what he was telling them. I have a picture of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, but that doesn’t mean you believe that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. But if I show you this picture and let you talk to people who have seen it, you will believe. I know that Jesus came back to life after he was dead, and that he walked and talked and ate with people he knew and worked with.
That’s the reason Paul told the people in Corinth about the 500 people who saw Jesus after his resurrection. They were witnesses to the greatest miracle in the world, the resurrection of Jesus. That is, why it is also a help to you and me. We can’t see Jesus today but we know of more than 500 people who did see him walk around and talk after he was resurrected. They didn’t have television, and there were not nearly so many people, but even today 500 people is a lot of people. They saw him and they told others that they had seen him alive even after they knew that he had died on the cross.
You believe that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon because your parents saw him walk while they watched their television. I can tell you that Jesus lived after he died because more than 500 people saw him and told others about this wonderful day.
Of course, this study was completed before the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of companies cut their workforce, and the remaining employees worked longer hours to compensate. Also, many people began working from home, which made it harder to leave work at work. The result: working unpaid overtime. (1)
We all know that the U.S. is the nation of “rise and grind.” Hard work is in our DNA. But so is being tired. We complain about how busy and tired we are. We compare our busy schedules and shrug our shoulders. “Oh well, that’s just how life is. What can you do about it?”
A seasoned doctor was training his latest group of interns on diagnostic techniques. He wrapped up his training by saying, “Never ask your patients if they feel tired.” Why? Someone asked. “Because,” the doctor said, “everybody feels tired.”
And he may be right about that. Everybody feels tired. That’s normal, right? It’s a hazard of modern life.
I’m not against hard work. I thank God for the opportunity to work, and to use the skills and energy He gave me to make a difference in the world. I’m sure you feel the same way. But most of us also understand that sometimes our work can be unfulfilling. When we give our best efforts to something and we don’t see any results, we lose heart. That tired feeling isn’t just bone-deep. It’s spirit-deep.
Author Max Lucado tells the story of a man named Joseph Crater, a New York Supreme Court Justice who disappeared in August 1930. Crater was just forty-five years old at the time. He had gone to dinner with some friends one night. After he left the restaurant, he hopped in a taxi and rode away, never to be seen again.
No evidence ever turned up to explain Justice Crater’s disappearance. But on the night he disappeared, he left a check for a large amount of money for his wife. Attached to the check was a brief note. It read simply, “I am very weary. Love, Joe.” (2)
That’s sad, isn’t it? “I am very weary. Love, Joe.” Sometimes the tiredness runs spirit-deep. And it steals away our joy, our peace, our hope. That’s not what God intended for our lives. Our God is a creative God, and God made us for peace, hope and joy. So that spirit-deep tiredness poisons the life that God intended for us to have.
That’s why we can relate to Simon Peter and the other disciples in our Bible passage for today. Crowds of people have come to the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret to hear Jesus preach. On the edge of the lake are the fishing boats that have come in after a long night’s work. Professional fishermen in Jesus’ day lowered large nets into the lake. In the dark of night, the fish couldn’t see the nets, so schools of fish were easier to catch at night. (3)
Unfortunately, Simon Peter and his colleagues had an unsuccessful night. Jesus climbed into Simon’s boat and asked him to float out a short distance from shore. After Jesus finished teaching the people on the shore, he told Simon Peter to sail into deeper waters and let down his nets again.
Put yourself in Simon Peter’s shoes. He’s just finished working all night with no results. In addition to being tired and ready to go home, he’s probably frustrated that his hard work didn’t pay off. He was tired and ready to quit. And now Jesus is telling him how to do his job. Simon answers, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
And in this story, Jesus gives us a gift. He shows us how to heal a tired spirit. For example, one thing we learn from this story is that doing meaningful work can heal a tired spirit. A great way to stay energized and effective in your work and in your life is to seek to do something that you truly believe in.
Back in 2013, officials from the California Department of Social Services shut down an eldercare facility in San Francisco named Valley Springs Manor. They shut it down because the facility had failed several inspections. The Department of Social Services planned to relocate the 20 residents who were still living there to other, safer facilities.
Sadly, the owners of Valley Springs Manor didn’t wait for the Social Services workers to complete their relocation efforts. They ceased operations immediately and announced that they weren’t paying their employees any more. So most of the employees walked out, leaving behind 16 elderly, vulnerable residents and just two employees to care for them.
The two employees who refused to leave were the cook Maurice Rowland and the janitor Miguel Alvarez. Imagine that: an eldercare facility being staffed by only a cook and a janitor. However, these two men couldn’t imagine abandoning the patients. So without any help or pay, Rowland and Alvarez worked around the clock for two straight days taking care of the residents. They fed them, kept them safe, kept the facility clean, and dispensed medications. Each man would go home for one hour every 24 hours to take a shower, then would return to the Manor.
Two days after Valley Springs’ owners and other employees abandoned the facilities, workers from the Department of Social Services showed up to relocate the last 16 residents. They were amazed to discover that the cook and the janitor had been working for 48 hours straight caring for the residents.
When asked why they stayed around, Miguel Alvarez said, “If we left, they wouldn’t have nobody.”
And Maurice Rowland said, “I just couldn’t see myself going home . . . Even though they wasn’t our family, they were kind of like our family for this short period of time.” (4)
These men found meaning in stressful, exhausting work by thinking of the residents as family. Doing meaningful work is one of the best ways possible to heal a tired spirit.
Another way to heal a tired spirit is to catch God’s vision for your life. You’ve heard me say several times before, God has a plan for your life. In no way is your life meaningless. You are here for a reason. To invigorate your life, pray that God will show you that reason. That’s what I mean when I say that we need to catch God’s vision for our life.
Pastor Mike Slaughter once noted that people have a tendency to view life through either a microscopic lens or a telescopic lens. If you view life through a microscopic lens, then you’re focusing on your current circumstances, your current challenges, your current stresses. You’re focused on the details of the now. And that can get pretty overwhelming.
But people who view life with a telescopic lens see a bigger picture for their lives. They are not stressed out or trapped by their current circumstances. They “look forward to what God is creating in the future. Whereas microscopic people focus on problems, telescopic people see the possibilities.” (5)
When Jesus told Simon to row out to deep waters and cast his nets again, Simon said, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” That’s a microscopic response. “But because you say so, I will let down my nets.” That’s the moment that Simon opens himself up to Jesus’ leading. And Simon and his colleagues catch so many fish that they have to load them onto two boats.
Simon is so ashamed of his doubts that he falls at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.”
But Jesus didn’t do this to shame Simon. He did it to share with Simon a new vision for his life.
Jesus says to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”
Jesus is talking to us as well as Simon Peter. Don’t be afraid, he says to us, from now on you will fish for people. Whatever work you are doing, whatever hobbies you have, wherever you find yourself, your primary purpose now is to bring people to God. Your primary purpose in your home, in your workplace, in your school, in your hobbies, in your passions, in your relationships is to share the love and truth of Jesus Christ with others. That’s the new vision God has for your life.
It’s like something interesting that I read about our country’s space program recently. It seems that when NASA engineers sent the Perseverance rover on an historic mission to Mars in 2020, they hid a coded message in the rover’s parachute. The parachute had an unusual red and white pattern . . . Alan Chen announced that this strange pattern held a secret message. Then he challenged folks to find and decode the message. It only took six hours for internet sleuths all over the country to find and decode the message on the rover’s parachute. The message was, “Dare mighty things!” (6)
Dare mighty things! That’s what Jesus is saying to Simon. You’re looking at your life through a microscopic lens. You only see if you’ve caught enough fish to feed your family and turn a profit. Catch my vision for your life. I want to work through you to share the presence and power of God. I want you to change lives. And that is exactly what those weary fishermen did. They changed lives and they changed the world. So, the second thing we learn from today’s Bible passage is catching God’s vision for your life can heal a tired spirit.
And finally, we learn from this passage that, more than anything else, committing your life to Jesus can heal a tired spirit. How does our Bible passage end today? After Jesus offered Simon and his friends a new vision for their life, we read, “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” They didn’t go home and catch up on that missed sleep. They didn’t even go out and sell that big catch of fish. They just left everything to follow Jesus.
Is it possible that your tired spirit is a result of not committing your whole life to Jesus’ Lordship? Your successes, your failures, your strengths, your weaknesses, your doubts, your security, your future, your identity—are you still wrestling over committing everything to Jesus’ plans and purposes? Because when you commit your entire life to Jesus Christ, you are also trusting Jesus with the results of your life. He is offering to work through you to change lives with his power and his message and his love. You don’t have to do the work alone. That is a sure antidote for a tired spirit.
In the 1920s, Lillian Dickson and her husband, Jim, moved to Taiwan to serve as missionaries. Once the Dickson’s children were grown, Lillian wanted to begin a mission of her own. With Jim’s blessing, she set off to reach people in the most remote region of Taiwan. She worked with medical missionaries at first, then she founded a school. She spent more than 30 years working among the poorest and most remote groups of people in Taiwan and Indonesia. She walked thousands of miles through thick forests and rushing rivers to bring medicine, food, education and love to people in desperate need, including lepers and orphans.
She founded schools, orphanages, clinics and churches. She even went on to found Mustard Seed International, a mission organization that is still in operation today. Someone once asked Lillian Dickson how she could continue working so enthusiastically when she was surrounded by an “ocean of suffering that could never be emptied.”
Lillian replied, “I just scoop out my bucketful.” (7) What a great answer. When you commit your life to Jesus, all he is asking is that you scoop out your bucketful. He will work through you to bring others to God. Leave the results to him.
When you become tired, discouraged or filled with doubt about whether or not your efforts are making any difference, please remember this: Jesus’ disciples faced harassment, rejection, imprisonment, beatings and death for their work. But they also convinced thousands of people that Jesus is Lord and Savior for all humankind. They planted churches all over the Roman Empire, Africa and Arabia. Today, over 1 billion people from every race and nation call themselves Christians, and there are Christian churches in every corner of the world. And you and I are here today because of the work of Simon Peter, Paul, and the other apostles who committed their work and their lives to the message and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Now it’s our turn. Commit your life to Jesus and see how he can give you a new sense of vitality and use you to make a difference in this world.
1. “Overwork Killed More Than 745,000 People in a Year, WHO Study Finds” by Bill Chappell, NPR May 17, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/05/17/997462169/thousands-of-people-are-dying-from-working-long-hours-a-new-who-study-finds.
2. Lucado, Max. God Is with You Every Day (p. 291). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
3. “Biblical Fishing 101 Reeling in the First Fishers of Faith” by James Campbell, D. Min., LoyolaPress.com https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/prayer/arts-and-faith/culinary-arts/biblical-fishing-101-reeling-in-the-first-fishers-of-faith/.
4. “The Everyday Superheroes at the Elder Care Facility” by Dan Lewis, Now I Know! May 25, 2021.
5. Momentum for Life, Revised Edition: Biblical Practices for Sustaining Physical Health, Personal Integrity, and Strategic Focus (Mike Slaughter).
6. “Internet sleuths solve secret message on Perseverance rover’s Mars parachute” by Chelsea Gohd, February 2021, Space.com, https://www.space.com/perseverance-rover-mars-parachute-secret-message-solved.
7. “Women who inspired World Vision’s founding father” by Marilee Pierce Dunker, https://www.worldvision.org/christian-faith-news-stories/women-inspired-bob-pierce.
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C (1)
I heard recently about a man who took great pride in being a former Navy Seal. And why not? This is an elite group. It takes a special sailor to qualify as a Navy Seal.
This man tells about sharing his military exploits with his grandson’s kindergarten class. This former Seal regaled the children with his war stories. After he finished, hands shot up into the air all over the classroom. The kids were eager to ask questions. “So,” asked one little girl, “can you balance a ball on the end of your nose?” Well, to be sure, a Navy Seal ought to be able to balance a ball on the end of his nose.
Life has a way of humbling us, doesn’t it? We think we are impressing people, and all they want is to see us balance a ball on the end of our nose. Our scriptures for today all have one thing in common: we see a man who was humbled.
Today’s reading present three men, Peter, Paul and Isaiah. All called by God. All appear to be unlikely choice to perform the mission they were given. Each one, though, was the perfect choice.
Simon, was a fisherman. He knew the sea. He knew where to find fish, at least most of the time. He was a big man, an ox of a man. He was the leader of the group, but that was a small group of four fishermen consisting in himself, his brother, Andrew, and the two Zebedee kids, James and John. He was probably illiterate. Yes, the New Testament lists two letters attributed to him, but he could have dictated these to a Christian scribe. Simon was just a good, hard, blue collar worker we would say, an everyday laborer. He was the least likely to lead an international movement. He had never been outside of Galilee and Judea. But this man, Simon, the Son of a man named Jonah, was called by the Lord to lead the Church, personally bringing the Gospel message all the way to Rome. He was the least likely to do this. But Jesus called him. He gave him a new name, Peter, the Rock. And Peter was the perfect choice. God made him the perfect choice.
Saul of Tarsus was brilliant. He wasn’t just literate; he was scholarly. He was a student of Gamiliel, one of the most important rabbinical teachers of the ancient world. Saul knew the scripture and the Jewish practices better than most people of his time. He was passionate for the Hebrew religious law. He was more enthusiastic than most Pharisees. He would hunt down the followers of Christ, convinced that their way of life was polluting the Holy Land of Israel. Saul was certainly not someone you would choose to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What is more, he is the last person you would expect who would argue that the gentiles did not have to first become Jewish before becoming Christian. But Christ called Saul as he traveled on the road to Damascus. He was given a new name, no longer Saul, now Paul. Least likely? No, Paul was the perfect choice. He was the perfect choice to spread the Good News. God made him the perfect choice.
700 years before Peter and Paul, a man was chosen to be a prophet for Israel. His name was Isaiah. The main focus of his prophecy was on the holiness of God. The “Holy Holy Holy” that we sing during Mass is taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. But Isaiah was certainly not the person anyone would expect to proclaim God’s holiness. He was a man with unclean lips. What did that mean? In our days when we accuse someone of having a dirty mouth we mean that his language is vulgar, offensive and abusive. Perhaps Isaiah was filthy that way. Or perhaps he was a liar, a violator of the eighth commandment. Or perhaps he was someone who was not thoroughly devoted to Yahweh and even ate food that the Jewish people were not allowed to eat, such as pork, shell fish and food sacrificed to pagan gods. These are some of the ways that his lips might have been unclean. Yet, those lips were chosen to proclaim the holiness of God. Today’s first reading tells us that God purified these lips. God made Isaiah the perfect choice.
God does that. He did that for Peter, Paul and Isaiah. He does that for us. He makes each of us the perfect choice.
So the brand new Mom and Dad bring their baby home from the hospital. Do you parents remember that day? Everyone was excited. Then they left. And your baby was colicky. Where were those people at 2 am in the morning? Like the guy in the commercial, the Dad said to himself, “I’m a sports car kind of guy; not a van guy.” As she rocked the baby all day, and all night, the Mom said to herself, “I don’t know if I’m ready for this.” Both Mom and Dad said to themselves, not to each other, and certainly not to their own parents, “I can’t do this.” But God called them, called you, to be parents. He even gave you new names, “Mommy and Daddy.” There are no better parents for your child, your children, than you. God made you the perfect choice.
Your wife, your husband, has been severely ill. Worse, one of your children is chronically ill. You are continually going back and forth to the hospital, back and forth to the doctor. You are exhausted, physically and emotionally. “I can’t do this,” you say. “I’ve always hated hospitals. I get squeamish just at the site of blood.” But God has called you to be a care giver. He’ll give you the strength to get through it all.
You might just be a teenager, but you have so much pressure. School work can be tough. It can be boring. Some subjects are fun and come easy. But then there are those that drive you up a wall. You can’t seem to get it right. You are on a team or in a club, and there are high expectations placed on your back. And then there is the constant drama with your friends. Who is not talking to who and why? On top of all this put peer pressure. Others tell you that you are the only one who doesn’t drink, doesn’t take drugs, doesn’t have sex. They are lying, or at least they don’t know everyone else, but still they put pressure on you to join them in their self-destructive behavior. You have all this pressure and you say, “I can’t do this. I can’t be a committed Catholic.” You are correct, alone you can’t, but with God you can. He has called you to bring the message of his Kingdom to those who have rejected him. He has called you to develop into the man or woman who will lead his people. He even gave you a new name at your baptism. He calls you His Child, His Son, His Daughter. Think about this, God doesn’t just call you Liz; He calls you His Daughter Liz. He doesn’t just call you Bill. He calls you His Son Bill.
Note, first of all, how they were made aware of their sinfulness and their dependence on God.
Having worked with drug addicts and alcoholics we always say that they have to hit rock bottom before they can be lifted up. They same is true for people who are addicted to their sin. If you keep confessing the same sin over and over again, you are addicted to it. You have a choice f stopping it now or let it grow and fester until it brings you down. Either way you can’t do it on your own. You need help. AA gives you a sponsor but they also say you need a higher power. Hopefully for us sitting here that higher power is God.
Seeing ourselves as we really are, experiencing God’s grace to make a new start in life—lead to the call to a purposeful life. For everyone that call is to bring others to Christ. So parents for your children You Can Do it. For students in school You Can Do it. For those in the military You Can Do it.
The Lord asks, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” And Isaiah cries out, “Here am I, send me.” Jesus says to the frightened Simon Peter, “I will make you a fisher of men” and immediately he follows after the Master. And St. Paul acknowledges that because he persecuted the Christians, he was the least of the Apostles, but, he adds, that by God’s grace, he worked harder than any of them. That’s what happens when we have an encounter with the living God. And it is the most important encounter we will ever have–giving our lives completely to Christ.
You can do this, and I can do this. We can be Christians thoroughly committed to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can do this because the One who has called us gives us the power to complete his mission.
All of us have times that we are convinced we are the least likely to perform a role that God has set for us, perhaps as a parent, perhaps as a care giver, certainly as a committed Christian. We all might think that we are the least likely to serve God. But we are wrong.
Like Peter, Paul and Isaiah, we might think we are the least likely, but God has called us. In His mind, with His help, with His Divine Mercy, we are each the perfect choice.
If I told you that God would send His son to this earth, that He would only live about 33 years and only the last three of those years would be how His life would be measured, what do you think He would do with those three years? Let’s make it personal. Suppose from the day you were born you knew you would only live 33 years and that your life would be measured by only the last three. What would you do with your life?
It is indisputable that Jesus did more and accomplished more in the last three years of His life than any other human being has in a full life. In fact, He accomplished more than any other nation or kingdom in history. H. G. Wells, the famous author, one of the top historians of the 20th century said this about Jesus:
“More than 1,900 years later a historian like myself who doesn’t even call himself a Christian, finds the picture entering irresistibly around the life and character of this most significant man….the historian’s test of an individual’s greatness is, ‘What did he leave to grow?’ Did he start men to thinking along fresh lines with a vigor that persisted after him? By this test, Jesus stands first among all who have ever lived.”[1]
Someone has said, “You can gauge the size of a ship that has passed out of sight by the huge wake it leaves behind.” By any measure, Jesus left the world’s largest wake behind Him.
