On this Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear the Lukan Gospel (5:1-11) and according to scripture scholars there are at least seven (7) themes upon which one may pray or meditate. The gospel narrates the calling of the first disciples, specifically Simon Peter, James and John, while they were fishing. The seven themes are: Divine Call and Response; Faith in Action; Abundance through Obedience; Transformation and Mission; Humility and Recognition of Sin;   Community and Collaboration; and, The Eucharistic Symbolism. 

This weekend I would like to focus on two of the seven themes, Faith in Action and   Abundance through Obedience. 

Faith in Action: In today’s gospel account, the disciples fish all night to no avail. When the Lord instructs them to cast their nets again, they obey Him despite their doubts. This highlights the theme of faith or trusting in the God’s Word even when it seems contrary to our experiences. Now let’s consider this particular theme in light of our own lives and in today’s culture. It is easy for us to get caught up in the whirlwind of life, and even by the call to challenge everything and everyone in authority. There is no doubt, no pun intended, that over the last few decades there has been a large decrease in trusting institutional authority: police, governments, religion, corporate structures and traditional community support systems. Some of this distrust is well deserved, some is stoked up for other reasons. Nonetheless, the impact is the same: fewer people hold on to traditions and trust in authority, which gives rise to movement away from Truth, or fact, and towards the growth of “my truth,” or my opinion. Even to the point where non-expertise is accepted as authority in public   conversation.

Self- knowledge and –wisdom is more and more present in religion today. But, just because I have lived twenty-five or sixty years does not mean that my “wisdom” or “knowledge” is equal to or greater than God’s Wisdom or Knowledge. And yet for some it is easy to dismiss Christ’s teachings and “go their own way because they know better.” Faith in Action isn’t just about doing good works—feeding the hungry or making street sandwiches or preparing a meal for a fellow parishioner in Comitas. Nor is it just about writing a check for Malta House of Care or the Neighbors in Need fund. Rather, it IS about the motivating factor or “prime mover” behind what we do—what leads me to donate or to work in the vineyards of faith today? We can say the same for our Church’s entities, i.e., Catholic Charities or the AAA, do we do what we do because it is God’s Will or are we doing something just to meet a social need? Are we faith based or are we just another NGO? If we make sandwiches because we know people are hungry, that is nice but we are called to feed the hungry so as to align our wills to the Will of God. Our sandwiches are not the only “food” we should provide them with, we should also provide them with prayers and speak to them of Jesus. That is faith in   action, and it benefits the world in two ways: we help the needy and we help our own souls. 

Abundance through Obedience: The miraculous catch of fish symbolizes the   abundance that comes from following Christ. It teaches that when we obey God’s Will, we may   experience blessings beyond our expectations.   When we are faithful in our choices, when we seek the excellence of another instead of our own gain, when we seek peace versus revenge—one-upmanship, when we seek through prayer the righteous outcome—win the lottery or God’s Will be done, we are beyond blessed, and the blessings flow abundantly. As a priest, I have met many people with serious illnesses or who have faced a fatal diagnosis, and in time they simply pray for the strength and grace to handle what comes their way. To believe that God has a plan (He has been good to me or I have lived a blessed life, so why not   believe that He will continue to bless me) and to believe that in the end, were we are going is the Peaceable Kingdom, then our focus is less on what “I hope to be” and more on “what I shall be.” Blessed be my soul—for all eternity. 

Certainly, without faith, these two themes can be difficult. But with True Faith, and  understanding of who God created me to be and why He calls me to follow Him, we can bring about what we hear mentioned above in “Faith in Action,” to be able to “obey Him despite their doubts.” Amen!