Last weekend, four of our brothers, Lac and Thang, from Vietnam, and Christian and Nathan, from Sri Lanka, were ordained to the Order of Deacons at the Oratory of St Ignatius, which is within the Loyola House of Studies complex that is beside our community. It was a truly joyful and memorable ordination. The morning’s Eucharist was solemn and spiritual; the singing was rich and invigorating; the congregation was enthused and joyful. And our ordinands, who were nervous at the beginning, were beaming in God’s goodness at the end. Deo Gratias!
During the homily, the ordaining prelate, Bishop Tito Tagle of Imus, made some insightful remarks about Christian life, which is, as I see it, a life of formation in the spirit of Jesus. He based these on the Gospel passage of the Liturgy, Luke 5:1-11. Luke writes about Jesus calling Peter, James and John to leave everything and follow him after he had stepped into Peter’s empty boat, helped them catch a multitude of fish and invited them to be fishers of men at the Lake of Gennesaret.
Bishop spoke of two lessons this story holds for us all about Christian life in terms of diakonia, the Greek word for service, and from which we have the word, deacon. (To be a deacon is to be one who serves.)
The first lesson is that Jesus steps into Peter’s empty boat without asking permission and takes over Peter’s space and job, and even his life. In Peter’s place, the boat, Jesus sets up his cathedra from where he preaches to the crowds. Where Peter’s boat was barren, Jesus fills it with a catch overflowing. And where Peter’s everyday life was that of a fisherman, Jesus calls him to a fisher of men by preaching the Good News. Indeed, this is the story of the first disciples opening themselves to new possibilities that come when Jesus takes charge of their lives, Bishop told us.
This can also be for us if we but let Jesus step into our own boats, which can sometimes be a fragile, or broken, or even a shabby, unsightly bark that seems to be no longer seaworthy. And yet, our boats—that come in so many shapes and sizes, colours and hues, even degrees of capability to chart the stormy seas of life—are precisely the ones Jesus chooses for a life of service.
The second lesson, Bishop noted, is Jesus’ miracle of making out of Peter’s fruitless overnight fishing, exemplified by his empty vessel, an overflowing richness that spills over into other boats, other lives. Jesus’ bold, even impertinent, act of stepping into another’s boat does not mean one loses ownership of it. Rather, this miracle reminds us that when we cooperate with Jesus, when we let down our empty nets into the waters of life, as he tells us to, we will be surprisingly filled and full. There will be fish for the catch, food for nourishment. Truly, there will be life in abundance precisely because the vessel of our life, which can sometimes be empty or lacking, is transformed by Jesus into the Holy Grail of life for another. This miracle of something more and better out of nothingness is indeed Jesus’ gift of the Father’s promise of all things good in our lives. The promised good sustains, refreshes and remakes us to share life and love with all, particularly, the marginalized and poor.
I believe that when we are transfigured in this way, we can make this world a little more humane, a little more divine. Indeed, when we are prepared to let Jesus step into our boats so that he can work this miracle, we too are formed to become deacons, like Lac, Thang, Christian and Nathan, for our lives are now nothing less than diakonia.
This is a question for us all: Will I let Jesus step into my empty boat so that he can make out of its emptiness a miracle of abundant goodness for someone else today?
fine art print: “at dawn” by macduff everton
View comments