Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Ordinary Time

  • The Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    The Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    At first glance, it all seems so simple, doesn’t it? “Go and do likewise.” Easy enough. But when a command like “go and do likewise” comes at the end of one of Jesus’ parables, we really ought to suspect it’s going to stretch us a little bit, and today is no exception.

    So let’s take a step back and look at today’s first reading to get some background for what’s happening in today’s Gospel. Moses is exhorting the people to keep the commandments of God. But which ones? The Ten Commandments? Perhaps. But the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus give the fullness of the Jewish law. There you can read over six hundred laws pertaining to everything from hospitality to the treatment of slaves, and then some. I often think the people had to be overwhelmed when they thought about that many laws. They may even have been fearful that they would have accidentally broken one of those laws in the course of daily life. But Moses is telling them that they don’t have to be reaching to find the laws they need to follow. Those laws aren’t remote or mysterious. They don’t have to cross the sea or search the sky. Because the law they need to follow is very near to them: on their lips and in their heart. They have only to carry it out.

    This is almost exactly the same thing Jesus is saying in the Gospel today. The scholar of the law who approaches Jesus today isn’t really seeking further knowledge. Rather, he is showing off and testing Jesus to see what he would say. He wants to know what it takes to inherit eternal life. Which is the right question, but for the wrong reason. In other words, he really isn’t concerned about his salvation – he probably thinks that a scholar of the law like him has that all wrapped up anyway – instead he is trying to trap Jesus and make him look foolish. 

    As Jesus often does, he answers the question with a question: “What is written in the law?” The scholar feels on good, solid, comfortable ground with that question, and responds correctly for a good Jew in that time and place: Love God with everything that you are, and love your neighbor. Loving God and neighbor, as Jesus tells us elsewhere, is the Law and the Prophets all wrapped up in a quick little elevator speech. So Jesus commends him, and says that if he does this he will live. But the man wants to justify himself a little more, and so he asks, “Who is my neighbor?” And this is the ten-thousand-dollar question of the day.

    There are a few Greek words that translate to “neighbor” for us.  The Greek word for “neighbor” in this particular parable means something a little more than a person living near you.  The word for  “neighbor” here is something a little higher. This word is almost a verb. It’s not just someone nearby, but instead the dynamic of coming near to another, of approaching and drawing close.

    I think we all have an idea in mind when we hear the word “neighbor.” I remember the neighborhood where I grew up, the neighborhood in which my mother continues to live. I had friends who went to school with me, and even to our Church. When we were growing up, we would spend hot summer nights together outside, playing “kick the can” and other kids’ games. Later, we attended our youth group together. Our parents kept an eye not just on their own kids, but on all the kids in the neighborhood. When my sister was little, she used to like to climb trees, and as soon as she did, the neighbor would call to let my mother know so she wouldn’t fall out of the tree and break her neck, which thankfully never happened. When someone had an illness or death in the family, there would be food brought to the house. If there was work to be done, someone would always lend a hand. We were neighbors to each other.

    But again, as nice as this picture of “neighbor” is, Jesus is calling us to go deeper. He is asking us to step outside ourselves, and to see a person in need and respond, no matter where that person is, no matter his or her race, color or creed. This is a real challenge in every time and place.  The person in need is always our neighbor. Listen to that statement again, because it’s crucial to what we’re hearing today and I don’t want you to leave this holy place without coming to understand it: the person in need is always, always, always our neighbor.

    Before we come down too hard on the priest and the Levite in the story, let’s give them a bit of a break. In telling the story, Jesus doesn’t condemn the priest and the Levite.  They were doing what people in their position would probably do, because they had to be concerned about remaining ritually pure so that they could lead worship. But Jesus says to them that they cannot be so concerned about the finer points of the law that they miss responding to the needs of a neighbor among them.

    And we have to hear that too. Because we too can get so caught up in our own laws that we end up as self-righteous as that scholar of the law. We may claim to respect life if we have never been involved in an abortion. And that’s a great start, but respecting life also demands that we care for the poor and needy, that we care for the health of every person, that we honor our elderly brothers and sisters, and that we repent of our racism and refuse to honor stereotypes that are an affront to human dignity. We may claim to honor the sixth commandment if we have never committed adultery. But honoring that commandment also means that we live pure lives and strive always to purify our hearts. It means we don’t take part in off-color jokes and that we refrain from watching television or movies, or visiting internet sites that lead us down the wrong path. We may claim to be thankful for our daily bread when we say grace before meals. But being thankful for our blessings means also that we share them with those who are hungry. Because Jesus is leading us to a deeper reality today, we can no longer get caught up in the self-righteousness that the scholar of the law brings to his encounter with Jesus.

    The person in need is always our neighbor. We don’t need to search far and wide to figure out what to do for that person. We have only to see the generous and self-giving response of the Samaritan in today’s Gospel and, as Jesus commands us, to “go and do likewise.” The Law and the Prophets are as near to us as that.

  • Saturday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Saturday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    I think it’s amazing to let your imagination wander to this vision that the prophet Isaiah had in today’s first reading.  Looking upon God in all God’s glory would be awe-inspiring, perhaps even terrifying.  Seeing that, Isaiah is inspired to do a kind of examination of conscience, where he sees how sinful and unclean he is, living among people who are sinful and unclean, and realizing that having seen God’s greatness, he is doomed.

    It’s a useful reflection for us disciples, I think.  Because sometimes I think we are overly familiar with God, and don’t remember his greatness and power and glory.  God is our intimate friend and loving redeemer, but he is also the creator of all the universe who holds all of us and everything in being by his own power.

    So I get why Isaiah felt like he was doomed.  But God will not have that; he has chosen Isaiah for the task of prophecy to the nations.  So he purifies Isaiah’s lips and asks who he should send.  And purified of his wickedness, Isaiah is able to say, “Here I am, send me!”

    We too have been purified by Holy Baptism, and in that ritual the minister touches the lips and ears of the infant, opening them to the praise and glory of God.  Not by a burning ember from the altar, but by the sacrifice of Our Lord, we have been purged of sin and called to holiness and ministry.  Today and every day, we are asked by our awesome God, “Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?”

  • Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    Today’s Gospel underlines the failure of the Jewish leaders of the time.  Jesus was casting out demons from many people, which was what they were supposed to do but could not.  They were too busy attending to the the Law instead of seeing to the salvation of souls, which is what the Law was intended to accomplish. So instead of fixing what was lacking in their faith, they accuse Jesus of being in league with the devil. Kind of a “best defense is a good offense” sort of thing.  But Jesus sees the vast number of people who long for spiritual care but are not getting it, and laments the lack of laborers for the harvest.

    The issue is just as pressing now as it was then.  Too many times, we are distracted by whatever issue and miss tending to the people around us who need God’s presence.  The needs aren’t different: people need to know God loves them and is present to them; they need to see and experience God’s infinite mercy; they need healing; they need to be accompanied in their pain; they need to see the value of living for God.  It’s up to all of us disciples to make that life real and attractive, so that everyone can come to know the Lord.  You might be the Jesus that someone needs to see today.  You might be the laborer God is sending into some situation today.  Don’t be afraid to follow the Master of the harvest!

  • The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Blessed be the Name of Jesus

    The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Blessed be the Name of Jesus

    Today’s readings

    “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”

    I don’t think we really understand and respect the power of the name of Jesus in our day to day lives.  Very often people take the name of the Lord in vain, violating the second commandment of the Decalogue, and even if we bristle about it a bit, how often do we challenge it?  How often do we ourselves take the Holy Name in vain?

    Here is some context.  In Judaism, the second commandment was taken so very literally that the name of God (the one is abbreviated YHWH) was never pronounced.  That very abbreviation was made without vowels, so that when it came up in a text, the reader would not pronounce it.  They would substitute with the word “Adonai,” which we translate as “Lord.”  Interestingly, for some time in the Church, it was commonplace to hear that Y-word in Catholic Liturgy, for which we should be ashamed.  There were even hymns (which have since been revised) that used the word.  The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a directive in 2008 that this practice was forbidden.  So we can see here that names used to refer to the Divine Persons are sacred and not to be thrown around lightly.  Not even in the Sacred Liturgy. 

    We echo this slightly in Catholic worship.  You will often see the Presider of Liturgy bow his head when the names of Jesus, Mary, or the saint of the day, are mentioned.  This is a practice that is given in number 275 of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.  It says, “A bow of the head is made when the three Divine Persons are named together and at the names of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the Saint in whose honor Mass is being celebrated.”  The instruction doesn’t say who does that, but clearly the Presider at least should, but even the faithful can do that as well.  In fact, in older times in very Catholic areas, whenever someone heard or used the name of Jesus in conversation, believers would bow their heads.  I once heard a homily in my young days from a priest who recommended that we should consider bowing our heads whenever we heard someone take the name of the Lord in vain, and it’s not a bad idea.

    And for good reason.  “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”  Did you catch that?  The name of Our Lord terrifies demons!  So just as Jews don’t pronounce the name of the Lord, we should be very careful how we use it.  When we use the name of the Lord, it has to be with utmost respect and reverence.  Because His Name has power.

    Taking a cue from this very Gospel reading, there is a tradition of deliverance for those who are dealing with some kind of oppression.  It’s just short of an actual exorcism.  In that process, the oppressed persons are encouraged to name the things they are struggling with and to renounce them in the name of Jesus, and, in the name of Jesus, to claim blessing and victory over sin.  And believers are absolutely entitled to do that, yet we hardly ever think to do so.  Jesus sent the seventy-two out to claim victory over sin and illness and everything that oppressed people in his Holy Name.  They were to take nothing “extra” with them, because they could depend on the power of his Name to provide for them.

    We can do that too, but perhaps we need to be reconciled with his Holy Name.  We need to repent of using his name in vain, and repent of not knowing the power that His Name holds.  Even the demons know better.  We can claim victory over everything that oppresses us, whenever we do it in the name of Jesus.

    Say these with me if you know the prayer.  If you don’t know it, google “Divine Praises” and memorize the prayer.  It’s wonderful to have it in your prayer toolbox.

    Blessed be God.
    Blessed be his holy Name.
    Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
    Blessed be the name of Jesus.
    Blessed be his most Sacred Heart.
    Blessed be his most Precious Blood.
    Blessed be Jesus in the most holy Sacrament of the altar.
    Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
    Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
    Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
    Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
    Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
    Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
    Blessed be God in his angels and in his saints.

  • Saint Irenaeus, Bishop, Doctor, and Martyr

    Saint Irenaeus, Bishop, Doctor, and Martyr

    When a person faces opposition from erroneous ideology, there is a difference between refutation or winning an argument and correction. It might even be fair to say that many people are up to the task of winning an argument, but it takes a saint to be content with correction. Certainly that can be seen quite well in society these days.  Most people would rather win an argument than contribute to the education of another person.  This subtle difference is one that Saint Irenaeus knew quite well.

    Irenaeus was a student, well trained, no doubt, with great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than to prove them in error. Irenaeus did major work in responding to the Gnostic heresy. Gnostics claimed access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, and their teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic sects and their so-called “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated into Latin and Armenian in his day, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics.

    Saint Irenaeus was concerned with protecting the truth. But more than that, he was zealous about teaching the truth so that people would turn away from harmful errors. All of us are expected to stand up for the truth too, in our own way, among those people God has placed us. The simplest way to do that is to live the truth and to be people of integrity and mercy.  Treat others as Christ, forgive as we have been forgiven, teach what we have come to know by the way we live our lives. Our witness goes a long way to teaching the truth and winning people over to the Gospel, which is way more important than simply proving others wrong and making them look foolish. Through the intercession of Saint Irenaeus, may we all gain many souls for the glory of the Kingdom of God.

  • The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

    The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

    Today’s readings

    Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Catholic worship is our celebration of the Eucharist.  We state very strongly that it’s not just a symbol, not just a nice memory.  It is the actual Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord.  We know that we are spiritually in the presence of our Lord whenever we receive Communion or adore the Blessed Sacrament.  But even more, we believe that, in the Eucharist, we become what we receive: we become part of the Mystical Body of Christ, and in that Body we all become one.  We Catholics believe that the Eucharist makes us one, and because of that, it is good for all of us to come together as one to celebrate this feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

    We may express our unity in many ways in the Mass.  We all sing the same songs.  We all stand or sit together.  We might join hands at the Lord’s Prayer.  And those are all okay things, but they are not what unites us.  They put us on a somewhat equal footing, but that can happen in all kinds of gatherings.  The one thing that unites us at this gathering, the experience we have here that we don’t have in any other situation, is the Eucharist.  The Eucharist unites us in the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, where all division must necessarily cease.  The Eucharist is the definitive celebration of our unity.

    On this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we are called to take comfort in the many ways God feeds us. We know that when we pray “give us this day our daily bread,” we will receive all that we need and more, because our God loves us and cares for us. But to really trust in God’s care can sometimes be a bit of a scary moment.

    It was certainly scary for the disciples, who asked Jesus to “dismiss the crowds” so that they could go into the surrounding cities and get something to eat. They were afraid for the crowds because they had come to the desert, where there was nothing to eat or drink. They were afraid for the crowds because it would soon be dark and then it would be dangerous to travel into the surrounding cities to find refuge and sustenance. And, if they were to really admit it, they were afraid of the crowds, because all they had to offer them were five loaves of bread and two fish – not much of a meal for Jesus and the Twelve, let alone five thousand.

    But Jesus isn’t having any of that. Fear is no match for God’s mercy and care and providence, so instead of dismissing the crowds, he tells the disciples to gather the people in groups of about fifty. Then he takes the disciples’ meager offering, with every intent of supplying whatever it lacked. He blesses their offerings, transforming them from an impoverished snack to a rich, nourishing meal. He breaks the bread, enabling all those present to partake of it, and finally he gives that meal to the crowd, filling their hungering bodies and souls with all that they need and then some. Caught in a deserted place with darkness encroaching and practically nothing to offer in the way of food, Jesus overcomes every obstacle and feeds the crowd with abundance. It’s no wonder they followed him to this out of the way place.

    The disciples had to be amazed at this turn of events, and perhaps it was an occasion for them of coming to know Jesus and his ministry in a deeper way. They were fed not just physically by this meal, but they were fed in faith as well. In this miraculous meal, they came to know that Jesus could be depended on to keep them from danger and to transform the bleakest of moments into the most joyous of all festivals. But even as their faith moved to a deeper level, the challenge of that faith was cranked up a notch as well. “Give them some food yourselves,” Jesus said to them. Having been fed physically and spiritually by their Master, they were now charged with feeding others in the very same way.

    Christ has come to supply every need. In Jesus, nothing is lacking and no one suffers want. All the Lord asks of the five thousand is what he also asks of us each Sunday: to gather as a sacred assembly, to unite in offering worship with Jesus who is our High Priest, to receive Holy Communion, and to go forth to share the remaining abundance of our feast with others who have yet to be fed. After the crowd had eaten the meal, that was the time for them to go out into the surrounding villages and farms – not to find something to eat, but to share with everyone they met the abundance that they had been given. So it is for us. After we are fed in the Eucharist, we must then necessarily go forth in peace, glorifying the Lord by sharing our own abundance with every person we meet.  We too must hear and answer those very challenging words of Jesus: “Give them some food yourselves.”

    In our Eucharist today, the quiet time after Communion is our time to gather up the wicker baskets of our abundance, to reflect on what God has given us and done for us and done with us. We who receive the great meal of his own Body and Blood must be resolved to give from those wicker baskets in our day-to-day life, feeding all those people God has given us in our lives. We do all this, gathered as one in the Eucharist, in remembrance of Christ, proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes again.

  • Monday of the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time – Presidents’ Day

    Monday of the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time – Presidents’ Day

    Today’s readings

    So the disciples are waiting for Jesus to come down the mountain after the Transfiguration.  They have attempted to cure a man’s son from the hold of a demon, but they were apparently unable to do so.  This seems to have led to an argument between them and the scribes.  You can almost feel Jesus’ exasperation.  Both the disciples and the scribes should have been able to do something for the boy, but they couldn’t.  Why?  Because instead of praying, they argued about it.  “This kind can only come out through prayer,” Jesus tells the disciples when they ask why they were ineffective.

    I often wonder, with more than a little fear, how many demons I could have cast out – in myself and in others – if I had a little more faith, if I prayed a little more than I do.  There are, of course, all sorts of demons: demons of illness, demons of cyclical sin, demons of impure attachments, demons of homelessness, poverty, and marginalization, and so many more.  Think of all the demons we could cast out if we just had more faith, if we prayed more fervently and stopped arguing with everyone over everything that isn’t to our liking.

    Today is Presidents’ Day, and we remember those who have served our country as the leader of the most powerful nation in the free world.  It’s a task that should never be undertaken lightly.  Some of these men have been great, and others really terrible.  All have been flawed in some way, because no one is perfect.  None of them has had the luxury of everyone agreeing with everything they said and did.  Perhaps those who have been more successful have been those who thought long and hard before responding to people and situations, taking their gravely important task to prayer before speaking and arguing.  One thing is certain, we need to pray for all of them, living and dead, because their judgment will be a difficult one: from those to whom much has been given, much will be expected. 

    Sometimes, when we are trying to overcome some problem, the last thing we think to do is pray, when it should absolutely be the first.  The disciples were guilty of it, the scribes were, and we are too sometimes, if we’re honest.  And all of us should know better.  I know that I myself can think of a number of problems I’ve tried to solve all by myself, when it would have been so much more effective to first turn them over to our Lord.  We can’t just cut God out of the picture and rely on our own strength; that never works – our own strength is so fiercely limited, whether we are the President of the United States, or just a citizen gathered in church for Mass.  We have to turn to the tools we have been given: faith and prayer.  And we can start by saying with the boy’s father: “I do believe, Lord; help my unbelief.”

  • The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Complete Reversal!

    The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Complete Reversal!

    Today’s readings

    So what’s wrong with being rich, full and not hungry, laughing, and having people speak well of you?  After all, God told us to go forth and fill the earth and subdue it, so attaining riches is really just the realization of that, right?  And constantly being hungry is unpleasant, and even unhealthy.  Speaking of health, experts speak often about the healing properties of laughter.  And as for having people speak well of you, isn’t that just an acknowledgement that we’re doing what we are supposed to be doing? 

    And while we are on the subject, what’s great about being poor, hungry, weeping and hated?  Doesn’t that just make you a failure, and a hard person to be around?  What possible good can people like that do for the community?  Why would anyone choose to live like that?

    So that’s the premise of today’s Gospel passage.  But, as often the Gospels do for us, we are in for quite a surprise as we roll up our sleeves and delve into the meaning of the scriptures today.  The surprise, actually, comes fairly early in the Gospel passage and you’d definitely miss it with just a quick reading, because we’re more inclined to notice the variation on the Beatitudes instead.  The surprise comes in the first sentence: “Jesus came down with the Twelve and stood on a patch of level ground…” 

    So Jesus has been up a mountain to pray, and has chosen the Twelve apostles, and coming down he sees a big crowd of people from basically all of Israel gathered.  When it says that he stood on a stretch of level ground, this signifies not just where Jesus was standing when he gave the Beatitudes and woes, but more importantly signifies a change, a reversal, of peoples’ perceptions about God and what he wanted to do in the world.  So if our perception of God is One who is beyond us and above us, higher than the heavens, and transcendent in nature, well, yes, we are right about that.  But he’s not beyond, above, and transcendent in a way that separates us from him.  Standing on level ground, Jesus, who is God, is also one who is with us, and among us, and in us, and for us.  And the Beatitudes and woes just serve to underscore that.

    So we have to see God in the poor, the hungry, the grieving, and the outcasts.  Because God is with them and knows they were created with dignity and gifted with grace.  At the same time, we have to realize that if we find ourselves in the reverse, that is rich, with plenty of food on the table, laughing and joking and without a care in the world, and always courting the favor of others, we need to see where that’s coming from.  Are we not using what we have to lighten the load of others?  Are we primarily concerned about our own needs and ignoring the plight of others?  Is our joy at the expense of the sadness of others?  Are we constantly looking for people to build up our egos?  Do we seek what is best for us and accept good fortune and gifts and not use them for the betterment of others and the community?  If so, woe to us.

    Jesus came to point the way to the kingdom of God.  But he didn’t do that by pointing up; instead he did that on level ground, pointing to the ones in need among us.  He wasn’t speaking of a far-off time and place, instead one that was near and now and urgent.  And he makes it very clear that this is not a new message, but one that the prophets proclaimed and people ignored.  Because it was the prophets who were hated and excluded and insulted and denounced, while the false prophets were spoken well of.  The prophets and those who follow their teaching can look for reward in heaven, those false prophets who tell well-off people what they want to hear and court their favor have already received their reward and can hope for nothing more.

    So Jesus preached complete reversal.  It’s not the giddy-happy people without a care in the world that are blessed, rather those who suffer and unite that suffering to Christ that find blessing.  Those who depend on God are blessed, while those who depend on themselves and on those who appear influential find woe.  The kingdom is not to be found far-off and far-away, but rather here in our midst.  God is not removed from us in his transcendence, but rather is Emmanuel, God-with-us, here with us on level ground. We are still in the early part of Luke’s Gospel and the early part of Jesus’ ministry.  But Luke points out at the outset that it’s going to be a bumpy ride!  We need to look for the unexpected, to know that if something in the message makes us feel uncomfortable or uneasy, it may be that God is telling us to pay attention to something important.  When we engage the reversal and enjoy finding God in unexpected places among unexpected people, we can rejoice and be glad, for our reward will be great in heaven.

  • Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time: Right Worship

    Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time: Right Worship

    Today’s readings

    Today’s readings are a call to right worship, to righteousness, or right relationship with God and others.  Worship of God, properly understood and properly performed, does not allow singing and praying and invoking God’s name in church and then cursing at someone in the parking lot, or even sending a tersely-written email the moment we get home.  More than that, right worship requires hesed, the Hebrew word that means something like love in action.  Worshipping our God means putting our faith into practice and loving as we are loved by God.

    Solomon, the architect of the Temple, is dedicating the Temple in our first reading this morning.  He stands before the altar in the presence of the entire community and prays that God would watch over the temple and forgive the sins of the community.  Now that they have a place to worship God rightly, the challenge for the community would be to honor that worship in day to day living, which as the scriptures tell us, sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t.

    Which leads to the conflict with the scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel reading.  They take the disciples of Jesus (and Jesus himself) to task for not following every prescribed ritual that is basically a human precept and minor tradition.  Yet they support people creating loopholes in order to violate the fourth commandment of the decalogue and dishonor their parents.  And I’m sure our Lord could have given them many more examples.  The point is that, if they want to honor traditions, they need to worship rightly, putting their faith into action.

    So this is a lesson we need to heed as well.  We can get caught up in the practice of our worship and never practice our faith if we’re not careful.  We must always remember that the true worship of God merely begins here in church; it plays out in the way we live our lives, the interactions we have with family, friends, community members, shopkeepers, coworkers, and so many more.  If we are not making the love of God present everywhere we go, are we really worshipping at all?

  • The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Put Out Into Deep Water

    The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Put Out Into Deep Water

    Today’s readings

    “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

    A command to do something, and a promise – that  is what happens in this early interaction Simon Peter has with Jesus.  And it had to be exasperating for Simon, because, as he says, they’ve been hard at it all night long and their efforts were fruitless.  They’re tired, they’re frustrated, and possibly even a little embarrassed and scared because this was their life’s work and by the accounts we have in the Gospels, they weren’t very good at it.  But something in the command, and in the person of Jesus, convinced him to lower the nets.  And Jesus makes good on the promise that came with the command: they netted a catch, and not just any catch, but a big enough catch to fill two boats beyond capacity.  A command, and a promise fulfilled.

    “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

    If you get the idea that we’re not just talking about fish here, you’re catching on, so to speak.  Putting out into deep water is a command we could all use to take a bit more seriously.  Because I think we all settle for looking around on the shallow end, and honestly, we don’t find much of anything in shallow water.  Here’s the shallow water that I think we spend our time in way too often: binge watching television shows; getting our news off of questionable sources on the internet and television and believing them like they were the holy Gospels; accepting our eighth grade catechesis and faith formation and never engaging it at an adult level; insisting on our own way in personal relationships, loving our sins, and tuning out the world in such a way that we never have to grow in our humanity.  And that’s a short list.  It’s shallow water, and if we are honest, we all look for our food there way too often in our lives.

    Today, Jesus invites not just Simon and the others, but also us: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

    If Simon could fish in the deep water after a long night of the same old nothing happening, we too can accept our Lord’s invitation to go deep and expect a catch too.  I think this is something worth looking at.  As I mentioned, you can almost hear the exasperation in Peter’s voice: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing…”  They have given up.  All they wanted to do was go home, clean up, and call it a day.  But I think it’s not just that they have given up on that day’s catch.  They have given up completely.  They have failed to make a catch more than once, and they may have given up hope that there were any fish to be caught. 

    Are we in that place too?  The pandemic seems to be going on and on and on: the things we were doing to protect ourselves and our loved ones no longer seem to be working.  Numbers surge and ebb, and hospitals fill, and people die.  Pandemic-weary people argue over mandates and bicker over what is best.  Experts tell us one thing, and if you don’t like that, you can find an expert to tell you something else.  But that’s really only the surface of the scary things that rage around us.  Crime rages in our cities and nobody has a worthwhile solution.  I keep waiting for someone to write a book called No Suspects Are In Custody, because no one even wants to risk helping anyone or being part of a solution.  Meanwhile one politician points the finger at another for just about every problem we can imagine.  There isn’t respectful dialogue anywhere anymore: not on talk shows, not in Congress, not in communities.  Everything is so disheartening that we just want to give up, go home, and call it a day.

    What difference does it even make if we try to change things?  No one wants to listen, no one wants to change, no one wants to grow.  We’ve given up on ourselves and don’t even see ourselves as worthy of the deep water and the experience of growth. 

    But Jesus does.  “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

    Peter was in that place, but Jesus saw more in Peter than Peter did in himself.  He saw the one who could be zealous and on fire and make mistakes and accept forgiveness and live to grow and walk on water and witness to the Resurrection, and nourish a fledgling Church.  Peter was an extremely unlikely leader: he couldn’t even lead his crew to make a catch of fish when it was his life’s work.  But Jesus sees the miracle in the unlikely.  And so he commands him: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  And you know what?  Peter’s nets are full beyond capacity; beyond his wildest dreams.

    Jesus sees so much more in us than we see in ourselves.  But we have to be willing, as Peter was, to try again, to go deep, and to expect a catch.  We have to be willing to learn new things that challenge our preconceived notions.  We have to be willing to expose ourselves to good sources of information and faith formation.  We have to be willing to listen to others, even if we don’t agree, and expect to learn something from the interaction.  We have to be willing to look for what Jesus wants us to catch in every situation, and willing to stay with it, no matter how exasperated we are.

    During our parish’s Year of the Eucharist, we are preparing many spiritual, faith formation, and leadership development opportunities.  We will all have the opportunity to grow in our faith and catch people and bring them to the banquet that is the Kingdom of God.  But we ourselves have to be willing to go deep, to challenge ourselves, and to be part of the movement to live as Eucharistic People. 

    Lent is coming. Lent is a call to conversion, re-conversion, and growth in discipleship. Lent is the quintessential call to put out into deep water.  We would do well to remind ourselves yet again this Lent that it is God who chooses us, that it’s not about what we can do, that it’s always God who gives us the grace to do truly great things, that our unworthiness does not define us in the eyes of God, and that God knows of what we are capable and sees great things in us. Maybe Lent can find us putting aside whatever fears keep us from answering God’s call and instead allow ourselves to be truly changed, truly used by God to do great things.

    “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”