Saturday, April 2, 2011

First Friday (04/01/2011) BOUNTY! BEYOND! BELIEF!

Tonight was the first Friday of the month and, as such, my church has Nocturnal Adoration where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed all night. It is a great chance to just sit with Jesus for a while and, as the Deacon at our church reminds me, 'look at Him and let Him look at you.'

This Friday I thought of someone from the gospel whose life was radically transformed by Christ. I was thinking of Peter.

Peter, the imperfect (just like us).

Peter who was the most ardent in trying to 'save' Christ from his destiny.

Peter who cut off a soldier's ear with his sword before being reprimanded by Jesus and then, despite assuring Christ he wouldn't, denied Him three times 'before the cock crowed'.

Regardless of these many failings and outright offenses against Jesus, it was Peter who He chose as the 'rock upon which I will build my Church', simply because through all his failings and imperfections, Peter had a pure love of Christ in his heart.

The incident I thought of in particular, was when Peter was actually called to be a disciple. Picture the scene...

Jesus is being followed by a large group of people to hear His teachings and comes to the edge of the lake. He climbs into the boat that belongs to Simon (Peter) with a look like, 'hey buddy, could you give me a hand here?' and asks if he would put out a little from shore. Peter had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. He was probably beat from casting the nets and then bringing them up again wet, heavy and, worst of all, empty, but he does it. Maybe he was interested in what Jesus had to say, maybe he was punch-drunk and didn't realize what he was doing, or maybe Christ just had a kind look in His eyes. Who knows, we weren't there.

So Jesus teaches the people from Peter's boat and after that, He tells him to put out into deep water to cast his nets. 'Seriously?!?' Peter thinks, 'I've been out here all night busting my hump and this guy shows up, talks from my boat for a while and thinks he's a fisherman?' Again, something tells Peter he should listen to this stranger....and he pushes out into deep water...

His reward for following Christ's plan BOUNTY! BEYOND! BELIEF!
The nets are so full he has to call over another boat to help them pull up the fish! The fish filled both boats so much they nearly sank. I can picture them floating along, water up to the gunwales (even though they weren't called gunwales at the time) limping back to the shore with a huge payload of fish and astounded fishermen.
But before that, Peter recognizes what is happening, falls down at Jesus' feet and lays it all out on the table.
"Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" What does Jesus do? He doesn't leap out of the boat and run across the water back to shore, does He? Quite the opposite, He tells him, "Do not be afraid.  From now on you will be fishers of men."
And off Peter goes, giving his life over to Christ.

I thought of Peter that day and how he must have felt. Tired and weary from his own fruitless labors, Jesus comes along and asks a favor. Peter, rather than just finish cleaning his nets and go home, 'Let one of these other guys help him!', decides to stick around and see what the carpenter has to say. And it turns into a life-changing opportunity that provides that BOUNTY! BEYOND! BELIEF! (sorry, I just like that phrase)

How often do you feel that way? Tired, burnt-out, feeling like you're getting nowhere, or worse yet, going backwards! Couple that up with not feeling like you're good enough (Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!) and you're pretty much sitting where Peter was that day. And even though we may not know why he did it, we can learn from his actions that when you feel that weariness and wonder if you can't go on, Jesus shows up. We can choose to keep doing things our way (How's that working for you?) or we can follow Him and His way and get to (here it comes again) BOUNTY! BEYOND! BELIEF!

Now before anyone thinks I'm talking about that whole 'God wants you to be rich' kind of stuff, anyone who knows me knows that I am not rich with worldly wealth. But I am surrounded with love. I have been surrounded by it for a long time and in following Christ (and despite my imperfection and stumbles in that pursuit) I realize that is my (last time) BOUNTY! BEYOND! BELIEF!

And that, my friend, will take you further than anything money can buy.

God Bless!
P.D.O.

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