God, if you tell me I will
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Early in his ministry, Reverend Billy Graham arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy had told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, “If you’ll come to the Baptist church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to heaven.” “I don’t think I’ll be there,” the boy said. “Why?” Billy Graham asked him. The boy replied: “Because you don’t even know your way to the post office! How can you show me the way to heaven?” Today’s readings tell us about the calls of the prophet Isaiah, Paul, and Peter to God’s ministry.
The good news of today’s gospel is that our sinfulness -- our pride and self-centeredness – does not repel God. Our God is a God who gives sinners a new start. It is important that we acknowledge our sinfulness. The recognition of our inadequacy and sin is necessary for us to be willing and able to receive transformation by God’s grace. Isaiah, Paul, and Peter teach us that even the greatest ones among us stand in need of conversion. They were called not because they were perfect, not because they were shining examples of high standards, but rather because their sense of the need for God's grace kept them on the edges of life.
In a certain church there was a man in the choir who couldn’t sing very well. The director suggested that he should leave the choir, but others felt he should be given more time to improve. But the choir director went to the parish priest and complained: “You’ve got to get that man out of the choir or else I am going to resign.” So the priest went to the man and said to him, “Perhaps you should leave the choir.” Why should I leave the choir?” the man asked. “Well,” said the priest, “four or five people have told me you can’t sing.” “That’s nothing father” the man replied, “Forty or fifty people have told me you can’t preach.”
Every priest says a prayer for himself before proclaiming the gospel: “Lord, cleanse my heart and lips that I may worthily proclaim your gospel”. Every priest knows that we are unworthy ministers. Yet God has chosen us to do his work.
Peter is a fisherman(an angler) and knows how to fish. So when Jesus tells him what to do, he is not immediately ready to follow the advice of the Lord. In matters of fishing, Peter was an expert. He knew that fish came to the surface in the Sea of Galilee only at night and if you did not get them then you would never get them. "Master," Peter points out, "we worked hard all night long and caught nothing." Remember that Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his greatest symphony when he was stone deaf. Winners never quit and quitters never win. If we try to limit God by our own limitations, we will only succeed in limiting ourselves. We need to see failure as a challenge and then at a deeper level see that every challenge is but an opportunity.
Finally, Peter says to the Lord: if you tell me to do it, I will do it. That last part is the most important part. Peter is always clear that when he knows that the Lord is asking something of Him and when the Lord is right in front of him asking, he will do what is asked. Initial feeling of personal unworthiness could be a sign that a soul has seen God. That is why humility is said to be the first and primary virtue in authentic spirituality. The feeling of personal worthiness and competence, not to talk of the feeling of self-righteousness and spiritual superiority, could be a sign that the soul has neither seen nor known God.
Peter got the point very quickly. He immediately saw his own pride and self-centeredness in the presence of Jesus. He begged Jesus to go away and put distance between his sinfulness and Jesus' holiness. But here again Peter got it wrong. It was only when he felt sinful and empty that Jesus could call him and fills him and makes him a fisher of people. Up to this point he had been too full of himself to allow God in.
Beyond the feeling of personal unworthiness, there is another quality that the three people who are called to do God's work in today's readings have in common, and that is the availability to do God's will and the readiness to follow His directives. As soon as Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” his immediate response was: “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 6:8). In the case of Peter and his partners, we are told that “they left everything and followed him” (Luke 15:11) without looking back. And Paul threw himself with so much zeal into God's work that he worked harder than all those who were called before him, though as he is quick to points out, “it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Merely feeling unworthy and incompetent does not make us into people that God can work with. We must add to that the availability and willingness to go out there and do as the Lord directs.
When we follow the guidance of the Lord in our lives, we achieve results that will blow our minds. This is what we see in Peter's miraculous catch of fish. He and his men toiled all night long and caught nothing. They were relying on their own competence as seasoned fishermen and following their own minds as to where and how to throw the net. The result, in one word, was failure.
Pope Benedict VI wrote in his book ‘Jesus of Nazareth:” If man’s heart is not good, then nothing else can turn out good, either.”(p.34)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Early in his ministry, Reverend Billy Graham arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy had told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, “If you’ll come to the Baptist church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to heaven.” “I don’t think I’ll be there,” the boy said. “Why?” Billy Graham asked him. The boy replied: “Because you don’t even know your way to the post office! How can you show me the way to heaven?” Today’s readings tell us about the calls of the prophet Isaiah, Paul, and Peter to God’s ministry.
The good news of today’s gospel is that our sinfulness -- our pride and self-centeredness – does not repel God. Our God is a God who gives sinners a new start. It is important that we acknowledge our sinfulness. The recognition of our inadequacy and sin is necessary for us to be willing and able to receive transformation by God’s grace. Isaiah, Paul, and Peter teach us that even the greatest ones among us stand in need of conversion. They were called not because they were perfect, not because they were shining examples of high standards, but rather because their sense of the need for God's grace kept them on the edges of life.
In a certain church there was a man in the choir who couldn’t sing very well. The director suggested that he should leave the choir, but others felt he should be given more time to improve. But the choir director went to the parish priest and complained: “You’ve got to get that man out of the choir or else I am going to resign.” So the priest went to the man and said to him, “Perhaps you should leave the choir.” Why should I leave the choir?” the man asked. “Well,” said the priest, “four or five people have told me you can’t sing.” “That’s nothing father” the man replied, “Forty or fifty people have told me you can’t preach.”
Every priest says a prayer for himself before proclaiming the gospel: “Lord, cleanse my heart and lips that I may worthily proclaim your gospel”. Every priest knows that we are unworthy ministers. Yet God has chosen us to do his work.
Peter is a fisherman(an angler) and knows how to fish. So when Jesus tells him what to do, he is not immediately ready to follow the advice of the Lord. In matters of fishing, Peter was an expert. He knew that fish came to the surface in the Sea of Galilee only at night and if you did not get them then you would never get them. "Master," Peter points out, "we worked hard all night long and caught nothing." Remember that Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his greatest symphony when he was stone deaf. Winners never quit and quitters never win. If we try to limit God by our own limitations, we will only succeed in limiting ourselves. We need to see failure as a challenge and then at a deeper level see that every challenge is but an opportunity.
Finally, Peter says to the Lord: if you tell me to do it, I will do it. That last part is the most important part. Peter is always clear that when he knows that the Lord is asking something of Him and when the Lord is right in front of him asking, he will do what is asked. Initial feeling of personal unworthiness could be a sign that a soul has seen God. That is why humility is said to be the first and primary virtue in authentic spirituality. The feeling of personal worthiness and competence, not to talk of the feeling of self-righteousness and spiritual superiority, could be a sign that the soul has neither seen nor known God.
Peter got the point very quickly. He immediately saw his own pride and self-centeredness in the presence of Jesus. He begged Jesus to go away and put distance between his sinfulness and Jesus' holiness. But here again Peter got it wrong. It was only when he felt sinful and empty that Jesus could call him and fills him and makes him a fisher of people. Up to this point he had been too full of himself to allow God in.
Beyond the feeling of personal unworthiness, there is another quality that the three people who are called to do God's work in today's readings have in common, and that is the availability to do God's will and the readiness to follow His directives. As soon as Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” his immediate response was: “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 6:8). In the case of Peter and his partners, we are told that “they left everything and followed him” (Luke 15:11) without looking back. And Paul threw himself with so much zeal into God's work that he worked harder than all those who were called before him, though as he is quick to points out, “it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Merely feeling unworthy and incompetent does not make us into people that God can work with. We must add to that the availability and willingness to go out there and do as the Lord directs.
When we follow the guidance of the Lord in our lives, we achieve results that will blow our minds. This is what we see in Peter's miraculous catch of fish. He and his men toiled all night long and caught nothing. They were relying on their own competence as seasoned fishermen and following their own minds as to where and how to throw the net. The result, in one word, was failure.
Pope Benedict VI wrote in his book ‘Jesus of Nazareth:” If man’s heart is not good, then nothing else can turn out good, either.”(p.34)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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