Fr. Bill's homily of February 4th
(This is also available online here, under "News" --> "Sunday Homily." I'm posting it here because it was one of those "...wow!" moments for me.)"At times, daily work seems so laboriously the same that people feel stuck in a routine that seems to be going nowhere. I hear from more and more people these days, many of them younger, that “I find myself unsettled, looking for more meaning, but unable to locate it. I’ve gone after a career and seemed to have moved up the ladder of success, but discover that, as good as it’s been, it’s not enough.” People who have gone through a painful divorce, say to themselves, “now what?” In spite of an almost endless array of opportunities, people ache for more. It’s not that things are so awful–it’s just that they’re all as life-filled as we’d like. And usually, it’s hard to articulate, to put into actual words. And therefore, hard to deal with. People just know when some freshness is needed in their lives.
Such perhaps was the case with the disciples in today’s Gospel. They had fished all night in the Sea of Galilee–night–the best time to catch fish. But all they caught by the time morning came was this charismatic preacher who commandeered their boat, so he would have a pulpit safe from the pressing crowd. Then, this “preacher-man,” who they probably suspected knew nothing about fishing, told them to lower the nets one more time. Outwardly they complied, but inwardly they expected only more empty nets. Not so–from emptiness, to nets filled almost to breaking they went. Peter then confessed his emptiness of heart: “Depart from me for I am a sinner.” But Jesus did not go away; and the disciples followed him.
Notice one thing: The call of Jesus was indirect; gentle even. He ordered them to put out into the deep, but he didn’t order them to follow him. The call was so subtle they may even have thought it was their own idea. So also, the call of Isaiah the prophet in the First Reading. He had a vision while worshiping in the temple. But then he confessed his emptiness: “Woe is me [to have seen the Living God] for I am a man of unclean lips.” One of the busybody seraphim fixed all that with a flaming ember (without anesthesia, no doubt.) But how did Isaiah get the idea he was being called out of his emptiness? He overheard a conversation the Lord was having with somebody (maybe the busybody seraphim again??): “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah took the bait: “Here I am, send me!”
In both call narratives, a kind of emptiness is involved. But the actual call is subtle, maybe even seductive. As the Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel claims, God’s search for us is far more effective than our search for God. God found Isaiah; Jesus found the partners in a fishing business. God found them all a bit empty. They answered a subtle call that was already inside, but that Jesus brought to the surface. So often, God looks for us but we have to be ready to be found.
Not always, but sometimes, an emptiness can signal a call to look for a new place to find greater abundance–a call maybe to change directions. Some calls can be “permanent calls;” others, “not so permanent.” The call to marriage or religious life is meant to be permanent. Major vocational decisions require major discernment. I am part of a discernment group our Vocations Office coordinates for older men who think that they may be called to diocesan priesthood. A similar group is starting up for women who may feel a tug toward religious life. The call to marriage also involves major discernment, because of the permanence that is presumed by almost all couples. Of all the annulment cases I have worked on in 25+ years of priesthood, rare is the person who says, “We didn’t expect this to be permanent.” No matter what painful circumstances led to it not turning out that way, the desire for permanence is almost always there.
Calls to a professional career such as an educator or a physician may be thought of as less permanent, but they are still serious calls. Being an effective business leader who leads others to develop their full potential is also a vocation. Pope Paul VI, way back in the 70's said: “Every life is a vocation.” And Palmer Parker who writes on spirituality in the workplace has written a book called “Listening for the Voice of Vocation.” Again indicating that everybody has one.
Sometimes we feel called, not to a different career but to a different way of doing what we’re already doing. A business leader may try to make a connection between faith and what he or she does everyday. Working for justice in the world in some kind of volunteer way can give us fresh energy...
Responding to God’s call in an always fresh way is a good thing to get familiar with. Because, as Christian disciples, they’re gonna keep on coming, if we are to remain fully alive."
Labels: call to service
posted by Currer813 @ 7:59 PM
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