Keep saying 'yes' to God's call: Archbishop to St. Pius X

This is an excerpt of Archbishop Miller's homily during a visit to St. Pius X Parish Feb. 10.

For me, the experience of meeting so many people who are engaged in the life of your parish family gives concrete witness that your community is flourishing under the shepherding guidance of your pastor, Father John Horgan, and the wonderful staff who support him, and all parishioners.

During the past few days, I have spent most of the time visiting with volunteers from nearly every parish group that gives life to your parish. I heard of their contributions to building up the parish, often over many years of dedicated service. I also picked up tips on how you carry out your mission as disciples of Jesus, practices and ways of going about things that I can share with other parishes.

You are blessed to have an outstanding school within your parish. Your school is flourishing because of the extraordinary way in which it is carrying out its mission as an evangelizing community which fosters in the children a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in the family of the Church. I want to thank the principal, teachers, educational assistants and staff who are lending their hand to this endeavour, which owes its beginning to the vision and determination of Monsignor Gallo.

I am also impressed by the service to the parish community that is carried out by the many volunteers on the Pastoral Council, the Finance Council. Also my admiration extends to the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, lectors, ushers, music ministers, and CWL. Those who serve the poor and the sick and those in health-care facilities are truly serving Jesus whom they encounter in those to whom they minister. 

There are countless spiritual gifts and good works present among you, and for this we should give the Lord thanks.

Dear parishioners: continue to build on your successes, inviting an increasing number of your brothers and sisters to share in your many ministries, especially those of the younger generation and not yet as fully involved in parish life as those who have found a home here for many years.

Reflection on the Gospel

At the centre of today’s Gospel is the towering figure of Simon Peter, who captures for us the experience of being amazed by the good Lord when he enters into our life, confronting us with his almighty power and merciful tenderness.

After being told by Jesus to lower his nets in the deep water, after a night of unsuccessful fishing, Simon’s are suddenly filled to the bursting point. What was his reaction? “He fell down at Jesus’ knees” (Lk 5:8), an ancient posture of pleading for mercy. In a lesser person, such bounty might have led to a request for an even greater catch but, instead, Peter is overcome with a profound sense of his own unworthiness before a divine power and shouts out: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Lk 5:8).

We, too, can be tempted to cry out with the same words when the Lord draws near to us. At times we find it hard to believe that Jesus is calling us personally to abide with him and to carry out his mission in our world. We see our own weaknesses and frailty. “Could he not have chosen someone else, more capable, more holy to be an instrument in bringing the Gospel to others?”

Maybe he could have; but he didn’t. “Jesus has looked lovingly upon each one of us, and in this gaze of his we may have confidence.” It is precisely in this way, in the humility of admitting our sinfulness and inadequacy, that we are called.

Simon Peter thought – and this is understandable, if mistaken – that there should be gulf between himself as a sinner and Jesus, the Holy One. Yet, as Pope Francis has reminded us in commenting on this passage, “In truth, his [Peter’s] very condition as a sinner requires that the Lord not distance himself from him, in the same way that a doctor cannot distance himself from those who are sick.” 

It is not shameful for us to feel as Peter did. On the contrary, it is spiritually necessary that we recognize our own inadequacy and sinfulness in the sight of the living God, before daring to embark on any mission he might call upon us to carry out.

In Jesus’ reply to Simon, once again we see the Lord’s tenderness. He did not reproach or scold him for his lack of faith. Rather, he invited him to trust and to be open to a new adventure with him. Such an adventure rightly surpassed anything the Apostle could have imagined: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people – a fisher of men” (Lk 5:10).

That day on the lakeshore, Peter could not have imagined that one day he would preach the Gospel fearlessly for his Lord, even to the shedding of his blood. The Apostle accepted this surprising call, and let himself be involved in this great adventure of leaving everything and following Jesus (cf. Lk 5:11).

Like Mary’s trusting “yes” to the Angel Gabriel (cf. Lk 1:38), Peter, too, said “yes,” a courageous “yes,” and became a disciple of Jesus. 

This is what the Lord asks of each of us: to say “yes” from our heart to the will of the Father, inscrutable and mysterious though it be.

One thing for sure is that the Lord wants every parishioner to “catch” or “fish” for people – those in our families, workplaces and neighbourhoods. We can do this “fishing” only because Jesus promises to be by our side. He knows who we are. He knows our past, but that is not what is important to him. He calls us and takes by the hand, saying over and over again: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you – and with you now.”

Indeed, he is with us now, especially now, as we continue our celebration of the Eucharist in which the living Jesus makes himself present before the Father and for us, nourishing us, so that we might accomplish what he wants to accomplish in us and through us.

More information on parish visits is available at www.rcav.org/archbishops-parish-visit.