Homily

Luke's story about the call of Simon, James, and his brother, John, centers on the miracle of this great catch of fish. Peter speaks up and realizes that Jesus is a man of God, telling Him that he is a sinful man and shouldn't be close to Jesus, lest some of his sinfulness taint this miracle-worker. But in the end, Simon Peter, James and John leave everything and follow Him. And Luke says it so simply that maybe it doesn't always register with us. They left everything. Everything. In Mark's Gospel and in Matthew's, they leave their nets and their father, but in Luke it is very clear that they leave everything else behind as well.

It's a pretty big investment in Jesus. They give up their stuff and people to follow him. Boats, nets, fish, father, family, their business and whatever plans they may have made for their own futures, those things are all left behind now as they begin their vocation as disciples. There are no negotiations, no questions, no hesitation, no taking time to think about it "and I'll call you next week." All of that, would have been normal, no? But none of that happens. Jesus calls and they follow, with a kind of radical willingness to be with Him leaving everything else behind. It is truly amazing. Stop and think about it for a moment. Can you put yourself in their shoes? Would you have done the same thing?

We, too, have been called to be disciples of Jesus, but we have not been asked to leave everything behind (although I'm sure that there are times in our lives that we may wish we could leave everything behind.) And yet, even though we are not asked to leave everything so that we can follow Christ, that doesn't mean that everything we have is good for us, nor does it guarantee that there are not things that we have that are getting in the way of our faith in Christ. For Luke there is a great emphasis on the openness of the poor to hearing the Gospel. He sees that those who have very little in life are not distracted by their money and their goods. They cannot rely on money or goods to give them power or make them feel secure in life. So they are often very open to hearing what Jesus has to say about God's love for them.

Now, of course, being poor doesn't guarantee an openness to God. For example, you can be a poor person who spends 100% of your time trying to become rich—probably by running for public office. But those with few possessions often have an advantage in seeing their need of a Savior, while those with plenty are more tempted to think that they have the stuff they need to save themselves, or at least they hope so. And they can keep working on getting more. For some people there can never be enough wealth.

It's not the stuff itself that keeps us at a greater distance from Christ. It's the way we see the stuff, and the way we use the stuff, and the importance we place on the stuff that creates the problem. If today our house was destroyed, our insurance disappeared, our savings wiped out, our cars unable to run, how would that affect our faith? There's no way to know for sure, of course, but if you stop and think about that kind of scene, how would you respond, do you think? And what if it was about the sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one? I saw a program where a couple's college-aged daughter was murdered. Her father said, "The first thing I did was to leave the house, go outside and I cursed God." Now I understand that in his extreme distress he may not have truly meant it. It may have just been an emotional outburst caused by his anguish. But if that is not the case, then we can see something very clearly about his relationship to Christ, Who is good enough as God as long as He does not disappoint in some important way.

What things, or maybe even people, are standing in the way of a closer relationship, a deeper trust, a greater love for Christ? It's likely whatever they are we did not put them in a position to weaken our faith. They may just have shown up without us being much aware of them, or we became comfortable with them and never seriously questioned whether or not they were helpful or whether they were getting in the way.

So I ask you to consider giving something up, at least for this coming week—something that may not be bad in itself, of course, but as a small gesture of our willingness to follow Christ. To give up some thing this week that will have a bit of impact on our lives, even if it's not huge or painful. To give up something as a point for reflection, to help us think about our willingness to leave behind anything necessary that stands between us and the Lord. To give up something to remind ourselves of what should be first and Who should be first. To give up something this week as a gesture of our willingness to go wherever the Lord may call us. I think it could serve as a small barometer to help us see if we have become too complacent and too comfortable with our faith so that we are directing our faith rather than our faith directing our lives. To give up something this week as a gesture of our love and devotion to Christ Who gave Himself up completely for us.

We don't have to leave it all behind to follow Him. But why not leave some thing behind for this week as an objective, definite, practical way of expressing our genuine desire to place Him first above all else and to exercise our faith in His loving power to save all those who hope in Him.