20140904 FAITH IN GOD’S POWER IN OUR LIVES
Reading 1, First Corinthians 3:18-23
18 There is no room for self-delusion. Any one of you who
thinks he is wise by worldly standards must learn to be a fool in order to be
really wise.
19 For the wisdom of the world is folly to God. As scripture says: He traps the crafty in the snare of their own
cunning
20 and again: The Lord knows the plans of the wise and how insipid they are.
21 So there is to be no boasting about human beings:
everything belongs to you,
22 whether it is Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, the world, life or death, the present or the future -- all belong to
you;
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
1 [Psalm Of David] To Yahweh belong the earth and all it contains, the world and all
who live there;
2 it is he who laid its foundations on the seas, on the
flowing waters fixed it firm.
3 Who shall go up to the mountain of Yahweh? Who shall
take a stand in his holy place?
4 The clean of hands and pure of heart, whose heart is not
set on vanities, who does not swear an oath in order to deceive.
6 Such is the people that seeks him, that seeks your
presence, God of Jacob.
Gospel, Luke 5:1-11
1 Now it happened that he was standing one day by the Lake
of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God,
2 when he caught sight of two boats at the water's edge.
The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets.
3 He got into one of the boats -- it was Simon's -- and
asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the
crowds from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, 'Put out
into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.'
5 Simon replied, 'Master, we worked hard all night long
and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.'
6 And when they had done this they netted such a huge
number of fish that their nets began to tear,
7 so they signalled to their companions in the other boat
to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking
point.
8 When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.'
9 For he and all his companions were completely awestruck
at the catch they had made;
10 so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners.
But Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on it is
people you will be catching.'
11 Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything
and followed him.
FAITH
IN GOD’S POWER IN OUR LIVES
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: 1 COR 3:18-23; LK 5:1-11
http://www.universalis.com/20140904/mass.htm
We are rational people. We want to know everything,
understand everything, before we can accept. There is nothing wrong with
this of course. Being credulous is as dangerous as being
incredulous. We need to be discerning. But when we become too
rationalistic then we reduce faith to reason only. We become
skeptical of everything. We are skeptical of miracles and the religious
experiences of our fellow faith believers. Some of us may even ridicule
their religious encounters.
Indeed, have you ever
wondered why the Church has lost its power and influence in the world
today? Just study the life of the apostolic church. We are told
that the early Church attracted much conversion because she exhibited signs
and powers. What has happened to all those signs and wonders that Christ
was supposed to work in His Church? How did the early Church lose her
powers? When it came into contact with the Greek world and its
philosophy! From then on, the Church became more philosophical, grounded
on reason rather than on faith.
Yes, like Peter in today’s
gospel, most of us rely more on our human effort than on the power of God. Like
Peter, “we worked all night long and caught nothing.” This is true of Paul when
he was still Saul. He was a respectable Pharisee. We can be sure
that Saul was totally committed to the laws. He was also a great
theologian. But he relied on himself and his own efforts. The truth is
that in our Churches, we have plenty of activities. But
these activities are humanly motivated, they are empty and bereft of
the power of God. We manage the Church more like an organization
rather than by the power of the Spirit. That is why the Church is still
not a powerful witness of God’s presence. Indeed, Paul tells us in the
second reading, “there is nothing to boast about in anything human.”
Consequently, like Peter, we reduce Jesus to the level of a master of ethics.
What do we need to
recover the power of God working in our lives? We need what I call a
“humiliating experience”, the kind of experience that Peter had. Now, we know
that Peter was an experienced fisherman. Certainly, we can presume that
he knew all the tricks and trade of fishing. Now, when Jesus asked him to
pay out the nets for a catch again, Peter reluctantly acquiesced. After
all, he said, “Master we have worked hard all night long and caught nothing …
but … if you say so, I will pay out the nets.” Most probably, Peter
was simply giving face to Jesus because He was considered a respectable teacher
by the crowd. But can we surmise in his mind that Peter must be thinking
“what does this son of a carpenter know about fishing?” Perhaps, Peter did what
Jesus told him to do only to prove Him wrong and embarrass Jesus.
But instead Jesus proved
him wrong. Peter must have been extremely embarrassed. That is why
he fell at his knees in shame and awe and said, “Leave me, Lord, I am a sinful
man.” When Peter said that he was sinful, he was not speaking about
a moral ethical sinfulness. Rather, he was speaking about his arrogant,
proud and haughty attitude towards the power of God. For once, he
realized his nothingness. Hence, Paul tells us that one must “learn to
be a fool before he really can be wise!” These words of Paul
summarize his own experience at Damascus. He, too, had a humiliating
experience in his encounter with the Risen Lord on his way to persecute the
Christians in Jerusalem. That encounter with the Lord awakened him to his
nothingness. For this reason, he told the Corinthians, “You belong to
Christ and Christ belongs to God.” In other words, we are nothing; we are
nobody.
Now the same thing will
also happen to us. Those of us who are so skeptical of the work of
God in the lives of people will one day be put to shame. There was a man in his
60’s whom I got to know at one of the parishes I was attached to. He was a
devout Catholic but very skeptical of people who have religious
experiences. He would ridicule and make fun of those who have the gift of
tears, or when they rested in the Spirit etc. Furthermore, he was every
inch a man – very macho-looking at that. One day, when he was praying
before the statue of our Lady, he started to cry profusely. He was so
embarrassed because he believed that a man must not cry! And he came to
see me, “Father, what is happening? I can’t control my tears. They well
up so suddenly and apparently without any reason. Why? Father,
why?” From that day on, he never made fun of others who had religious
experiences anymore.
Yes, this will also happen
to those of us who are so skeptical of miracles. One day, when we ourselves
have such humiliating and overwhelming experiences, we will feel so stupid,
because we will discover that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness to
God.” In reality, we all have had such experiences already. The
difference between Peter, Paul and us is that they could remember their
experiences with the Lord, whereas we often forget about such
experiences. Our memories of the marvellous works that God has done for
us in our lives are too short-lived.
However, if we remember
such humiliating and awesome experiences, then something more important will
take effect in our lives as it did for Peter. For Jesus told Peter
after that experience: “Do not be afraid, from now on it is men you will
catch.” Indeed, once we encounter the Lord, our lives will be
changed. We will have no more fear. Not only that, we will realize
our real mission in life. We will not be like Peter, simply catching
fish, but catching men. In other words, we will not simply be satisfied
with a few successful projects, but we will be conquering the hearts of men and
women for Christ. We will be working signs and wonders in the lives of
people. This is the power that Christ has given to us.
So what must we do?
Paul says, “if any one of you thinks of himself as wise … then he must learn to
be a fool before he really can be wise.” In other words, like Peter, we
must leave everything behind and follow Jesus. Yes, we must
recognize our nothingness and surrender ourselves totally to the person of
Jesus, because God can only work through and in us when we do. So
long as we can rely on ourselves, God will not intervene in our lives.
But the moment we allow His Spirit to operate, He will work wonders beyond our
imagination, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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