Thursday - September 03, 2020
You ask
me a method of attaining perfection.
I know
of love – and only love. Love can do all things.
– Saint
Therese of Lisieux
You ask
me a method of attaining perfection.
I know
of love – and only love. Love can do all things.
– Saint
Therese of Lisieux
Saint Gregory the Great, Pope, Doctor - Thursday of week 22 in Ordinary Time
| First reading |
|---|
| 1 Corinthians 3:18-23 © |
The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God
Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are; or again: God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
| Responsorial Psalm |
|---|
| Psalm 23(24):1-6 © |
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness.
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness.
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness.
| Gospel Acclamation | cf.2Thess2:14 |
|---|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Through the Good News God called us
to share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia!
| Or: | Mt4:19 |
|---|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Follow me, says the Lord,
and I will make you into fishers of men.
Alleluia!
| Gospel | Luke 5:1-11 © |
|---|
They left everything and followed him
Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 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.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; 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 men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
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Ready to Call it Quits?
Would you change your mind if Jesus sent you an email from heaven and told you to try again, but this time do it from a different angle, take a different approach? Would you respond like Simon Peter did in today's Gospel reading? Would you throw your net on the other side, even though you couldn't see any fish there and you're way too tired?
Sometimes, Jesus does want us to quit, like when we're casting pearls before swine. He said we should wipe the dirt from our shoes and move on. At other times, he wants us to quit because we're not doing his will in the first place.
And sometimes he tells us to try again but differently, in a strange, perhaps foolish way. This usually occurs when success is only a few steps ahead but we can't yet see it. Weary and losing hope, we're unwilling to take one more step. We think God is not giving us any helpful guidance, but that's only because we're expecting him to say or do something that makes sense to us.
What's your empty net? Perhaps it's a relationship that's deteriorated, and reconciliation seems impossible. Healing often comes after we do what we had resisted before, such as daring to set up and enforce boundaries that block hurtful behaviors. At first this will cause deeper division in the relationship, but it can become the turning point that leads to conversion and new growth in the one who's been hurting us, which finally opens the way to true reconciliation.
Perhaps your job situation seems hopeless. Is Jesus telling you to look in an entirely different direction? Is he trying to take you where you don't want to go? Maybe he's pointing at a goal where the obstacles seem insurmountable. Trust him; he'll open the right doors for you.
Remember who God really is. Even when his guidance doesn't make sense, God is still God. He has an over-abundant catch of blessings waiting to jump into your net. As the responsorial Psalm says, "To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it." If he wants to, he can multiply the fish and make them torpedo themselves directly into our nets. And he does want to!
But first we have to give up our own ideas of how a problem should be fixed. As the first reading says, let's not delude ourselves into thinking that we are wise, for then we are truly foolish. When we're ready to quit doing things our way, because it's only led to failure, that's when Jesus shows us where and how to find success. Although the fishing trip might take a while, he's telling us how to experience miracles that will give us more than what we hope for or imagine to be possible.
Today's Prayer
My Lord: You call me to work in Your vineyard, to conquer hearts for You. Give me the courage and the grace to let go of everything You ask me to so I can follow You with strong decisiveness. Amen.
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God Bless You.....
The Rosary Family
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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