Lec # 75- 5th Sun
of OT- Feb 7, 2016- Fr. Bresowar
My brothers and sisters in
Christ,
It is good to be here with
you today to celebrate this fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
As many of you are aware, the
main goal of this life is not to be happy here, but to be happy in Heaven with
God forever. I have spoken many times, and so has Father Jim, about this truth.
In fact, that is my main purpose for being here as a priest, to lead everyone
here to Heaven. I do this by preaching the Truth, administering the sacraments
which make us holy, and by trying to govern this small Church in a way which
puts God first and is obedient to His Church.
That’s my vocation as a
priest. That’s my desire, to go to Heaven, and because that desire is so alive
and inflamed in my priestly soul, I rightly choose, by the gifts given to me by
the Holy Spirit, to serve in such a way that we are all facing the same
direction and walking towards Eternal Life and not away from it.
Simply put, I’m here to lead
you to Heaven.
In my own assessment, I’m not
exactly sure why God chose me to do this, but nevertheless, I’m happy he did.
It is a honor which I’m not worthy, and it certainly comes with a heavy cross,
but it really is my only true desire.
In the Gospel today, we hear
of Jesus’ first encounter with Simon, who would later become Peter.
Think of your first encounter
with our Lord, reflect on it as you listen to this homily. Of the time when
perhaps you were skeptical of the message of Jesus Christ or the Church, the
Bible, and then think of where you are now. Have you grown closer to God? Are
you still far away? Ponder where you still have left to journey. Maybe some of
you are still waiting to hear the voice of the Lord in your life. Maybe some of
you are still skeptical.
Simon-Peter didn’t know Jesus
when he first encountered him. He didn’t love Jesus at first; to him, Jesus was
just another holy man proclaiming yet another religious message. He knew this
type of people, this religious fanatics like Jesus and his judgment was they
were lunatics who were wasting his time. Jesus was in his mind, but was in no
way in his heart. It was Andrew, his brother, who brought Jesus to Simon-Peter
and implored him to hear what he had to say.
Pay attention, once again, to
the words of Simon-Peter to Jesus’ request that they put their nets back in the
water to go fishing. Simon says, “Master, we have worked all night and have
caught nothing.” At this point, Simon-Peter could have just dismissed Jesus and
refused his request. But this is not what happened because Simon-Peter instead,
decided for some reason, maybe desperation at not being able to catch any fish,
maybe because he didn’t want to embarrass his brother, to heed the request of
Jesus. So he continues, “but at your command I will lower the nets.”
It appears that Simon-Peter
was extremely skeptical of Jesus. Does that resonate with any of you? Is Jesus
wasting your time? Would you rather be anywhere else but here? Are your parents
forcing you to be at Mass?
Perhaps to go ahead show that
Jesus just another fraud, he decides to play along and he lowers the nets.
What happens next changes
Simon-Peter forever. Upon lowering the nets they caught such a great number of
fish that their nets were tearing.
Notice Simon-Peter’s
reaction. He just witnessed an incredible miracle. To him it must have seemed
like the fish appeared out of nowhere, after all, they had been fishing all
night and caught nothing. So what does he do? He doesn’t get excited because
all these fish were going to bring him a great profit. No, instead, he asks
Jesus to go away because he realizes how sinful he is.
This is grace working in the
soul of Simon-Peter, this is his conversion moment. This is when he realizes
that Jesus is not just another religious lunatic. And this frightens
Simon-Peter, rightly so, because he understands how unworthy he is to be in the
presence of the Living God. He sees his own selfishness in light of the love of
Jesus, and he wants Jesus to depart.
Simon-Peter has the correct
reaction to Jesus. When the miracle happens, it humbles Him. Jesus, for his
part, reassures him, and tells him not to be afraid, that from that moment on,
he would be catching men for Christ.
Simon-Peter receives his
vocation from God, and we know at that moment, he begins to follow Jesus and to
learn from Him. From this living experience and increased knowledge, what
begins as a powerful moment of conversion becomes in time a burning love in his
heart for Eternal Life. But it didn’t happen overnight for Simon-Peter, it took
time as it does for us.
When we first meet Simon, who
would later become Peter, we see him argue with our Lord over putting nets in
the water. Simon will argue with the Lord continually along the way of his journey,
just as we do once we start finally talking to Him. He had to learn to trust,
just like we do.
For example, When Jesus tells
him that the Son of Man must be crucified, die, be buried and then rise on the
third day, Peter tries to stop him. Jesus rebukes Peter and tells him to quit
thinking like the people of the world who do not understand that the goal of
life is not worldly comfort.
After Jesus is arrested,
Peter denies that he even knows him three times. This leads him to feel great guilt,
which then leads him to repentance. After the Resurrection of our Lord, in the
last conversation that Peter and Jesus had before his Ascension into Heaven,
Peter professes three times his love for Jesus. Three times he had denied him,
and now three times he states his love for him. The knowledge of Jesus in his
mind had moved to the love of Him in his heart. Peter loved Jesus for
everything He is, not just for what he had done. He loved every aspect of our
Lord.
Finally, Jesus tells him the
cost of this love by explaining to him that he no longer belongs to the world,
that the world will reject Him, that he will die for Christ and the Truth, but
that he should not be afraid.
Jesus has overcome the world,
he is contrary to the world, he told us we would have problems here, and that
we should seek the Kingdom of God. That Heaven must be our motivation, not the
world.
Simon-Peter didn’t know Jesus
at first, he had to learn about him, and then he had to fall in love with Him.
Peter loved Jesus with all of his heart and soul, and would bear witness to
that love by being crucified up side down in Rome in the year 68 AD. Why up
side down? Because he didn’t feel worthy to be crucified the same way Jesus
was.
Now, please remember the
first reaction of Simon-Peter to our Lord and compare it to the last
conversation they had.
If Jesus asked Simon-Peter if
he loved Him and would be willing to be crucified for him when they first met,
Simon would have said no way, I do not ever know you. But three years later,
even though he made his share of mistakes along the way, he was madly in love
with our Lord and willing to die for Him.
This makes no sense unless
Jesus is God. And the fact that millions have fallen madly in love with Him and
given their lives for Him means that He must be who he says he is. No other
human has come even close to capturing the hearts and minds of so many.
God doesn’t abandon us, even
when we are selfish and don’t want anything to do with him, but, in time, with
patience, he does ask us to move away from our dependence on this world and
into a relationship of true love. This happens through the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church, and a cooperation of grace using our free
will.
Peter had to learn to let go
of everything and in doing so he found his greatest desire was to be with Jesus
forever in Heaven.
It has to be the same with
us.
Until then, we will be aiming
for worldly ambitions and comfort, which are nothing, absolutely nothing in
comparison to that which awaits those who love God.
The Church knows the goal of
the spiritual life is union with God, which is why she gives us among other
things, the season of Lent. Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday this very week,
is a time of penance, prayer and detachment. A time to learn, through the
desert of suffering, silence, stillness, how to abandon ourselves completely to
the will of God. It’s a time to work on our relationship with Him. To move from
knowledge to love.
