HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF 22ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR I.
THEME: They left everything and followed him.
BY: Fr. Deotacious Chikontwe SMA.
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Colossians 1:9-14
Psalm 97:2-6
Luke 5:1-11
*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
GREEN
*INTRODUCTION*
Good morning dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate Thursday of week 22 in Ordinary Time, Year A.
*FROM OUR FIRST READING*
In our first reading today, we heard of the continuation of Apostle Paul reminding the faithful people of God of God in Colossae to be ever faithful at all times. Each and every one of them to stay committed and true to their Christian mission and calling so that in everything that they say and do, they would always show the truth and the path of the Lord sincerely and courageously, in embodying what they have believed in so that everyone who witnessed their lives and actions, might also come to believe in God and learn to walk in His path.
RELATED: HOMILY FOR THE 23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A
*FROM OUR GOSPEL READING*
The words of Simon Peter in today’s gospel reading, ‘We worked hard all night long and caught nothing’, would find an echo in many people’s hearts. We can all have the experience of investing a lot of time and energy in something or someone and discovering that there is very little to show for all our investment. We live in a very result orientated world. Targets and outcomes are all important and if they are not reached then we can be judged a failure by others. Our gospel reading suggests that the Lord does not relate to us on that basis. The Lord spoke a word into Simon Peter’s situation of failure, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch’. The Lord saw life in abundance in the deep where Simon and others had only experienced absence. When Simon and his companions responded to the Lord’s word, the night of failure gave way to the day of abundance.
*CONCLUSION*
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord’s way of seeing is always more hopeful than ours. The Lord’s word is always directing us to the presence of new life in places we have come to experience as having little to offer. After the abundant catch of fish, Simon Peter came to see himself as having little to offer, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man’. Yet, Jesus saw him with the same hopeful eyes as he had seen the Sea of Galilee, ‘Do not be afraid, from now on it is people you will catch’. The Lord invites us to see as he sees, to see our situation, to see ourselves and others with his hopeful, expectant and generous eyes.
The Lord be with You.
*Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA.*
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