1. Year C / 5th Sunday / Ordinary Time
    Readings: Isaiah 6.1-2a, 3-8 / Ps 138 (R/v 1c) / 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 / Luke 5.1-11


    I believe that all of us 
    desire to listen to God’s call.
    And we want to respond, 
    as best as we can.

    But human as we are,
    we struggle with God’s call, don’t we?

    I know I do, every now and then, for different reasons:
    -- too busy to make time to hear God’s call;
    -- too self-centered to say ‘yes’;
    -- too fearful of what God is asking of me.
    Maybe you have had similar experiences.

    You and I might also struggle with
    what I call the Isaiah anxiety
    which our First Reading presents:
    this is the sense of being unworthy when God calls.

    Like Isaiah, we struggle with our own sense of unworthiness.
    Because of our sins, or our limitations, or our weaknesses,
    we tend to shy away from listening attentively to God.
    If we do hear God’s call,
    chances are we might be too embarrassed, 
    because of our unworthiness,
    to respond wholeheartedly to God.

    But God still calls us, 
    still calls us persistently and lovingly.

    The question then is
    “What can give us reason enough 
    to better respond to God’s call?”

    In our Gospel Reading this morning
    Luke narrates Jesus stepping 
    into Peter’s boat to teach the crowds
    and then filling it up with abundant fish,
    that in turn moves Peter and his friends 
    to leave everything and to follow Jesus
    who calls them to be fishers of men and women.

    I’d like to suggest that this scene offers us two reasons
    why we - whether we come as we do every Sunday to Mass
    or for the first time in many years -
    can respond more generously to God’s call in our lives.

    First, that Jesus is already with us when God calls.
    This is the comforting truth 
    we can glimpse from meditating 
    on Jesus stepping into Peter’s boat.

    Jesus steps into Peter’s boat without asking permission 
    and takes over Peter’s space and job, even his livelihood. 
    He sets himself up in Peter’s space
    to teach the crowds.
    What Jesus really does by stepping in
    is to take charge of Peter’s life.
    All Peter has to do is to let Jesus lead.

    And hasn’t Jesus also stepped into the boats of our lives,
    be they weathered, battered or even ruined,
    because of what we have done or failed to do 
    or what others have done to us?

    Hasn’t he
    comforted you with another’s care in your pain?
    answered my prayer with a community’s love?  
    led us out of darkness with another’s wisdom?

    And haven’t we, again and again,
    been surprised to find Jesus stepping into our boats,
    even before we asked him to?

    Recognizing that Jesus 
    has already stepped into our lives
    and is with us when we hear God’s call
    should give us the confidence 
    and courage to respond.
    We can do so because Jesus’ presence 
    as his Spirit in us tells us
    we are not unworthy.
    We are God’s own, God’s beloved.

    Second, that Jesus forms us to respond to God’s call.
    This is the instructive promise
    we can embrace when we contemplate 
    Jesus instructing Peter to fish.

    Peter’s boat is empty; there is no fisherman’s catch.
    Yet, Jesus steps into this emptiness
    and fills it with abundant fish that overflows into another boat.
    It is Jesus who shows Peter when and where to fish.
    It is Jesus who instructs Peter on how to catch, 
    and to catch well.

    And hasn’t Jesus also entered 
    into the boats of our lives,
    stepped into what little we have, 
    and taught us how to live meaningfully
    by living for others?

    Perhaps, we have experienced 
    Jesus doing this when we
    --- sacrificed something we wanted for another who needed it,
    --- shared words of concern and comfort with the grieving,
    --- even offered justice by standing up for the discriminated.

    Acknowledging that Jesus
    enters into our lives 
    and instructs us to live better by loving another,
    should give us the hope
    and the reason to say ‘yes’ to God.
    Jesus’ presence in our lives is formative;
    his Spirit teaches us how to live out God’s call well.
    More importantly, Jesus’ presence 
    forms in us a spirit of thanksgiving
    for being saved 
    and, more so, for being chosen for God’s work.
    And gratitude, a theologian wrote,
    cannot not move us to reach out and respond to a giving God. 

    That Jesus is already with us when God calls.
    and forms us to respond with thanksgiving
    are the two reasons our Gospel reading today
    invites us to embrace.
    To embrace because they may quite possibly be
    the very reasons 
    that enabled Peter and the first apostles Jesus called
    to leave everything behind and to follow him
    to do God’s work.

    If this is so, are they then not
    good enough reasons for you and me
    to leave aside more of our selfish selves this week
    and to follow Jesus, through whom God calls us, 
    and, in whom we find our rationale to respond
    more confidently by saying
    “Yes, Lord, here I am!”



    written for sunday mass at Blessed Mother Teresa Parish, Dorchester, Boston
    photo: from highwidhim




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"Bukas Palad"
"Bukas Palad"
is Filipino for open palms
Greetings!
Greetings!
Peace and welcome, dear friend.
I hope you will find in these posts something that speaks to you of the God who loves us all and who always holds us in the palm of his hand. Blessings!
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Fall in Love, Stay in Love
Fall in Love, Stay in Love

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."

Pedro Arrupe, sj, Superior General, 1965 - 1983

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is a 50something Catholic who resides in Singapore and works for the Church. He is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
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The views I express in these pages are personal. They do not speak for the Society of Jesus or the Catholic Church.
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