Saul is proof that God’s ways are not our ways. How is it that God would pick for one of his chief Apostles a man who imprisoned and murdered the followers of the Christian Way? That had to surprise even, and perhaps especially Saul, whose life was turned completely upside-down. Poor Ananias had to be quaking in his boots to carry out this command of the Lord. But thankfully both Paul and Ananias were obedient to the Lord’s command, and we are the ones who have benefited from that. Not only has the Word of God been passed on through their faithfulness, but we see in their lives that obedience to God’s will, while it may not always make sense, is the way that true disciples live.
Tag: Discipleship
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Friday of the Second Week of Lent
So in today’s first reading, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. What a foreshadowing this is, isn’t it? It certainly foreshadows Israel’s slavery in Egypt that led to the Exodus, but it also foreshadows the selling of Jesus into the hands of his executioners by one of his own brothers, Judas Iscariot, and, of course, ultimately by all of his brothers and sisters, namely you and me. We must never forget that Jesus paid the price for OUR sins.
But, it also foreshadows our own slavery too. We too have been sold into slavery to sin, enticed by the power of the evil one. The chains of our slavery to sin might look like always needing to be right, constant self-pity or self-doubt, blaming others instead of taking responsibility, criticizing others constantly, refusing to move on from the pain of our past, taking joy in the misfortune of others, giving ourselves to endless worry, putting others down, using stereotypes and participating in racism, refusing to forgive, thinking of oneself over others, and the list goes on. You know the chains that bind you to sin.
As the Psalmist tells us, the King eventually freed Joseph from his chains and put him in charge of his household. Lent is about allowing our King, Jesus Christ, to break the chains of our slavery to sin, and accepting the discipleship responsibilities he gives us. We are never forgiven and just left alone: we are forgiven and sent on mission. That’s why Jesus told Peter to go feed his sheep after Peter said, “Lord, you know that I love you.”
As we continue the prayer of Mass today, we offer those chains to Jesus, asking him to break them, and accepting the gift of discipleship for the honor and glory of God. Remember the marvels the Lord has done!
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Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
“Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” That’s a loaded question if ever there was one. But just like James and John, all of us Christian disciples will indeed drink of Jesus’ chalice. And just like James and John, we will have to accept all that comes with it. Yes, we will get a place in the kingdom, but yes, it will also mean for us that we will get hardship, suffering, and grief. We must drink the chalice if we would have the reward that Jesus came to give. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
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Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time [C]
The encounter between Jesus and Simon Peter in today’s Gospel reading is a nice story, but I think it goes deeper than that. In this encounter, we see five very important principles of the life of a disciple. So I would like to address these reflections to our catechumens and candidates for full communion with the Church this morning. I do that because, as you continue your journey to become one with us, you may very well see some of these things happening in your own lives, and I want you to know that these things are okay, that they are good, and that they are part of God’s plan for your life. Now, having said that, the rest of you aren’t off the hook here. These things really apply to all of us, because we are constantly growing in our discipleship, and conversion is an ongoing thing for all of us. That’s why all of our RCIA rituals take place here at Mass and not in private. We all have to learn from them the way to conversion.
And so, let’s dive into these five principles. The first principle of the disciple’s life is that we don’t choose God; God chooses us. Simon Peter didn’t put out an invitation to Jesus to join him in the boat. He probably didn’t even want the company, to be honest. He was washing his nets and cleaning up the boat after a very long, and very unproductive night of fishing. They’d been up all night, they were frustrated, and they probably just wanted to be left alone. But Jesus gets into Simon’s boat without even asking if he can come aboard, sits down, and tells him to put out a short distance from shore so he can teach the people from that boat-pulpit. If we think we are all here today because we chose to be here, chose to be God’s people, then we’ve gotten it all wrong. God chose us to be here, and we might not even know why, but God does, and he will reveal it in his own time.
The second principle of the disciple’s life is that it’s not about what we can do. As I’ve pointed out, Simon and his co-workers had a very unproductive night. And that’s horrible for them because this is their livelihood. They weren’t out for a relaxing night of fishing, they were out for fish to sell at market to feed their families, and they’ve caught nothing. It wasn’t just that they caught very little; we are told that they’ve caught nothing – zero fish, or at least nothing they could sell or eat. And that’s not unusual. Whenever you see Peter and the others fishing in the Gospel, they are always catching nothing when they are on their own. Try it – go through the Gospel and look for those stores, you’ll see. So it might seem strange that Jesus would call fishermen to be his Apostles, but it almost seems like fiduciary misconduct to pick fishermen who were complete failures at their craft. In fact we are told that the only really qualified guy he chose was Judas Iscariot, and we all know what became of him, don’t we? It’s not about what we can do, how successful we are, what personal gifts we have. God has something special in mind for us, and he can call anyone he wants. And he does.
The third principle follows from the second, and that is that it is always God who does the really great things that we seem to accomplish. For Peter and the others, we see it very simply … Jesus tells them to put out into the deep water, and despite their utter exhaustion and their better judgment, they do so, they lower the nets, and they can hardly bring the huge catch of fish in to land. They are extremely successful, but only because they have relied on God’s grace for their success. If we are serious about our success, either in our business or in our discipleship, then we too have to be ready to give it over to God’s grace. It’s hard because that involves letting go, giving God control, taking the good with the bad, constantly seeking God’s will. But that is our call, fellow disciples, that’s what we do.
The fourth principle is extremely important for us to get, because this is so insidious. This principle tells us that we are completely unworthy of such grace in the face of how awesome God is. And it’s true, none of us is worthy of the calling we have received. I’m not worthy to be a priest, you may not be worthy to be a parent, perhaps you’re not worthy of the work you’ve been called to do. But God has called us to do all of this anyway. Yes, we’re sinful, and perhaps like Peter we’d like to say “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man” or woman. Perhaps like Isaiah in our first reading, we find that we are men or women of unclean lips living among people of unclean lips. Who are we to proclaim the Gospel? Who are we to lead others? And Satan especially would love for us to give in to this. Because if we are caught up in our unworthiness, we can never be used to accomplish God’s will. But, unworthy as we are, it’s not about us, it’s about God and what God can do in us, so we have to seek forgiveness, pursue conversion, and then do what God asks of us. We must remember that forgiveness and conversion, like every other gift, is never meant just for us, it’s meant for us to share, and the way that we share that is to do God’s work in whatever way He’s called us to do it.
And the fifth principle is that God always sees better stuff in us than we see in ourselves. Jesus saw past Peter’s inadequacies as a fisherman and saw that he would be really great as an Apostle to bring people to the kingdom. He saw past Isaiah’s vulgarity to know that he would be just the person to speak his word. God knows that our sins do not define who we are; having created us, he alone knows of what we are capable, and he gives us a commission that goes beyond what we think we can do. He asks just one thing of us: “Do not be afraid.” This past summer, I saw the movie, “Julie and Julia.” Being a foodie, I loved it, but I also loved that Julia Child had learned the lesson Jesus always wants his disciples to hear … she always said “Don’t be afraid.” For her that meant she could cook anything. For us it means we can do anything God calls us to do. Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching people.
Lent is coming. For our catechumens and candidates, that means formation will kick up to a fever pitch. God will be doing amazing things in you. Satan will be working hard to put a stop to it. But don’t be afraid, God knows of what you are capable and he will give you the grace to accomplish it. For the rest of us, this coming Lent will be a call to conversion, re-conversion, and growth in discipleship. 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. Do not be afraid.
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Wednesday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time
“Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
Hearing is sometimes a difficult challenge for us. We have laundry lists of things we would like for God to hear. We can be real good at praying when it entails telling God what we think needs to happen. But it’s harder for us to just listen, and even harder for us to really hear. Most often, hearing means conversion, and that can be messy and even uncomfortable – perhaps even painful. But real disciples are called to be pray-ers who hear, not just speak. Whoever has ears ought to hear.
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Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time
Have you ever been sure of the Lord’s call in your life and it just terrified you? I have. And for those of us who have been in this position, we can perhaps understand Jonah’s reaction in today’s first reading. He had been called by the Lord to preach to the people in Nineveh. Now the people of Nineveh were unspeakably evil and had long been persecuting the people of Israel. And so for Jonah, this call was a bit like being called to preach to the people of Al-Quaida or something like that. Not only did Jonah fear for his life in going to them, but, quite frankly, he also could not possibly care less if they repented and God had mercy on them.
But it’s a little hard to run away from God. He always catches up with you sooner or later. If that weren’t true, I wouldn’t be standing here today, I can tell you that! It would certainly be easier for us Jonahs if we would just give in to God’s will at the beginning and not have to do all this running. But sometimes the human heart just isn’t ready for radical change.
That was true of the scholar of the law in today’s Gospel reading. I think he’s more testing Jesus here than really wanting to be converted, but he can’t help but get caught up in Jesus’ teaching. The question is, is he ready to “go and do likewise?” The reading ends before he can make that decision, but the implication is that it will be very hard for him to really love his neighbor in the same way that the good Samaritan loved the robbery victim.
And so those of us who look a lot like Jonah or the scholar of the law today, need to pray for softening of our hardened hearts. Will it take three days in the belly of a big fish for us to finally give in to God’s will? Or can we just give in and trust?
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Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time
Fear is a bad thing. Fear destroys discipleship. In the case of the gospel story today, fear kept the disciples from understanding. As well we know, Jesus was speaking to them about his passion and death, and they didn’t get it. They didn’t get it because that was not their idea of what should happen to the messiah. They were looking for a king who would bring Israel back to political greatness, not someone who was going to suffer and die. So they didn’t understand it, but worse yet, they were afraid to ask Jesus what he meant.
Why were they afraid? Maybe it was because they had invested themselves totally in Jesus, and they couldn’t bear to think of what people might think of them if they had spent all this time following a man who clearly was not the messiah they were looking for. That would explain why Judas made the deal for thirty pieces of silver, and ultimately why he took his own life.
Or were they afraid to find out that if Jesus was to accept suffering and death, they would have to do the same? Certainly that was true for most of them; they had to actually give their lives for what they believed. Whatever the case, they didn’t want clarification or understanding right now. They could not deal with the truth.
It’s hard to blame them for that, because I strongly suspect that all of us avoid the truth at one time or another in our lives. We think about something that is confronting us, and think: “I don’t want to know…” But we disciples can’t avoid the truth. It catches up with us someday, some way. Fear merely keeps us from confronting that truth with our God, the God who was willing to take the cross for us and is therefore with us in all our sorrows and joys.
The Christian disciple should never be afraid of the truth. What we need to fear is what the world would be like if the truth were never spoken.
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Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings are a kind of blueprint for the life of the disciple. We see that those who surrounded Jesus as his core group were but a few selected people. We have the Twelve, of course, but also some women. Common to all of them is that nowadays we would probably not see any of them as qualified for the job of being in the Savior’s inner circle. The Twelve themselves were a ragtag bunch, tradesmen, fishermen, tax collectors – none of them were even particularly distinguished in their chosen careers. It is said that the only one of them who was distinguished and could possibly have been called qualified was Judas Iscariot, and we all know what became of him.
The women mentioned were similarly unqualified. The Gospel says that they had all been cured either of evil spirits or infirmities. But they also provided for the ministry out of their means. So it’s a humble group that surrounds Jesus, and apparently, that was fine with him. He came, after all, to save those who needed saving, not those who had no use for a Savior.
Paul tells Timothy that those who would be disciples must “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” They must “Compete well for the faith” and thus “Lay hold of eternal life.” Jesus chooses anyone he wants; not merely those who are outstanding in qualifications. Blessed indeed are those who are poor in Spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”
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Thursday of the Twenty-third Week of Ordinary Time
Christian disciples are called to go the extra mile. Sure, it’s easy enough to love those who love you, and to do good to those who do good to you, and to give expecting reward. How many of us have people over for dinner because we know those same people will return the favor to us? How many of us have Christmas card lists that are basically reciprocation for those who send greetings to us? We have no problem loving and giving our best to those who do the same for us, but more is expected of us.
For us disciples, we are expected to do the impossible: love our enemies, lend without expecting to be repaid, stop judging, stop condemning others, and to give with wild abandon. Paul’s letter to the Colossians underscores the measure that will be used to measure us:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.And so our reflection today calls for us to reach out and go beyond ourselves. We have to step outside our comfort zone, reach higher, and give in the same way that God has given to us. That is how we will find true joy, as St. Paul also says, that is how we will reach our potential as true disciples.
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Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week of Ordinary Time
Healing is a wonderful thing, and it is perhaps the greatest consolation we receive as believers in Christ. But healing isn’t just for us. Just as Simon’s mother-in-law got up from her fever, having been healed by the Lord, and began waiting on people, so we too are called to get up and go on. When we have been healed, whether it is physically or spiritually, we are called to move on and continue to give witness to the Gospel. We don’t get to rest in the moment, because the moment was never just for us. Particularly with spiritual healing, those who have been forgiven through the Sacrament of Penance must then get on with their work as disciples. The evil one would try to convince us that we are not worthy of the mission, but the only one whose opinion counts is Christ, and his intent is that having been forgiven and healed, we need to get back up and begin again in our work as disciples, whatever that work may be.
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