The Sunday Homily: The Dynamics of Discipleship
Fr. James Farfaglia, Pastor, St. Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church, Corpus Christi, Tx, Feb. 7, 2010
In contrast to last Sunday’s gospel passage when Jesus encounters a violent rejection from the religious leaders of Nazareth to his teaching, this Sunday’s gospel passage finds Jesus among a large multitude of people that are eager to listen to him. The multitude is so numerous, that he decides to take one of the fishing boats and use it as his pulpit: “Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat” (Luke: 5: 3).
Lake Gennesaret, also called the Sea of Galilee and the Lake of Tiberias, is situated 680 feet below sea level and flanked by hills on its west side. This geographical situation allowed Jesus to use the lake as an amphitheatre, projecting his voice to the crowds, consisting of common every day people, not the Pharisees and Sadducees, who are eager to listen to him. In this Sunday’s gospel narrative we encounter humble people, people who are seeking the truth and are opening themselves to God. They are the kind of people that we must be at all times.
The people that came to listen to Jesus were simple and poor. They were thirsting for something new, transcendent and real. They were unsatisfied with the heavy legalistic burdens placed on their shoulders by the Pharisees and the political oppression brought on by Roman rule. They were seeking a happiness that only God could give them.
However, most people today are skeptical and apathetic. They look at most religious and political leaders and find very few who live authentic and convincing lives. Only someone real will be able to challenge indifference and inertia. People wallow in apathy because there is a lack of proposals and principles that fascinate the human psyche.
When the human person encounters mystery; when the human person experiences the transcendent; when the human person finds the treasure and the pearl of great price, only then will the human person be able to escape from apathy and skepticism, and find joy and peace.
Mystery, transcendence, the treasure, and the pearl of great price all were revealed in the person of Jesus to the crowd. In Christ, ideas that were abstract in the Old Testament seemed real, tangible, and possible to live. This is why the people were so eager to listen.
Today, Jesus is visible through his Church. Today’s challenge is that all those who are part of this Church must make Jesus visible to contemporary man. This is why Pope John Paul said that “man is the way for the Church” (Redemptoris Hominis, 14.3).
If the presence of Jesus in the Church is clouded over by corrupted bureaucratic forms of governance that impede communion and evangelization, then the Church will not be convincing for modern man who already is so immersed in boredom and cynicism. If Christians are not living the gospel and have been overcome by a spirit of negativity, personal ambition and dishonesty then how can the Church be salt and light?
Presentations and programs do not move people. Only something tangible and real can awaken in people a sense of astonishment. As we consider this Sunday’s gospel narrative we see that “the crowd was pressing in on Jesus” precisely because they intuitively knew something new, something unique, something totally different was happening. God was walking the earth. The challenge for every Christian of the modern world is to make Jesus present to others by the authentic witness of a life lived with conviction.
Peter was among the first disciples of the Lord. As his journey begins, he already knows who the Lord is. He calls him the Master. He loves the Lord and trusts him. Why would an expert fisherman listen to a carpenter about fishing? Peter is able to go beyond human thought and human sight. The vision of faith allows him to see Jesus as he really is: the Master. “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets” (Luke 5: 5). Knowledge leads to love, and Peter’s love is made manifest in surrender. Surrender did not take away from his personal freedom. Freedom can only be found in the truth.
Today, as we journey through the third millennium of human history, we are confronted with conflicts and upheavals that at first may frighten us, but in reality are part of a profound cultural and spiritual transformation that is in dynamic process.
A serious life of prayer is very important for the times that we live in. Pope John Paul II directed our gaze toward a new springtime in the life of the Church. However, spring means that snow, ice and mud are still on the ground. Flowers and leaves are just beginning to bud.
The Catholic Church in America may soon become smaller and more faithful. The America of yesterday may soon become something different. All of the traditional structures of support that have made our lives comfortable and easy are presently engulfed in confusion, but transformation is slowly taking place. Without daily contemplative prayer and daily Mass, or at least a prolonged visit before the Blessed Sacrament, you may be overpowered by anxiety and fear. You may implode without a personal relationship with God.
A contemporary spiritual writer describes the qualities of this new relationship with God when he writes, “This adventure of faith will consist in burning bridges, setting aside all rules of common sense and all probabilities and, like Abraham, disregarding arguments, explanations, and proofs, untying ourselves from all rational positions and, bound hand and foot, making the great leap into the abyss of the dark night, surrendering ourselves to the totally Other-God Alone-in pure and dark faith.
The contemplative of the future will need to enter the unfathomable regions of the mystery of God-without guides, without supports, without light. God will be experienced as the Other Limit; God’s distance and proximity will be meditated upon simultaneously; and as a result, there will be a feeling of dizziness which is a mixture of fascination, fright, annihilation, and dread.
The contemplative will have to run the risk of being submerged in this bottomless ocean where dangerous challenges are hidden. These, the contemplative cannot shun, but must face and accept them in their burning insistency.
Those who return from this adventure will be figures sculpted by purity, strength, and fire. Transformed by the ecstatic closeness of God, above them will appear the living and illuminating image of the Son. They will become the transparent witnesses of God” (Ignacio Larrañaga, O.F.M. Cap., “Sensing Your Hidden Presence: Toward Intimacy with God”, p. 12.)
Let us return to this Sunday’s gospel passage. “But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (Luke 5: 8). The astonishing result of their renewed effort to fish amazed Peter and those who were with him. Like Peter, we need to recognize our own sinful condition and the need for divine assistance.
Autonomy rooted in pride does not allow the Lord Jesus to enter into our lives. Autonomy is not the same as freedom. In our journey towards eternal life the exercise of human freedom is essential. However, again, let us remember that freedom and autonomy are not one and the same.
John Paul II brilliantly reminded us over and over, especially in his encyclicals Veritatis Splendor and Evangelium Vitae that freedom and truth must stay together. Freedom without truth only leads to anarchy.
The virtue of humility permits us to recognize who we really are and helps to bring us to a deep and personal relationship with the Lord. Humility allows us to be dependent upon God. Dependence does not take away from personal freedom. Dependence means that we can cry out Abba, Father! Only through practicing this humility, will prayer and the sacraments become an integral and convincing way of life.
Following the Lord Jesus will always be an exciting adventure, but frequently we may struggle and even fail. Thus Peter had fished all night, only to be discouraged by the results. However, when the Lord ordered him to try again he responded, “But at your word I will let down the nets.” Here is the continual reminder that we must never give up but always begin again.
Inevitably this loving discipleship leads to increased apostolic activity. Love cannot be bottled up and contained. The transformation that takes place within us by grace transforms us into living members of the Church. Disciple and apostle are the same. “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men” (Luke 5: 10).
Father James Farfaglia is pastor of St. Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas. His email address is fjficthus@gmail.com. You can visit Father’s Electronic Parish at www.fjicthus.com.
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