"Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            In my work in our parish school, and on the monthly occasions when I teach theology at Lansing Catholic high school, I have found that generally students fall into one of two categories when you ask them a question.  The first type of student is the “pick me, pick me!” students who can barely control themselves because they know the answer and they want to prove it.  The other type of student is the “Dear God, do not let Fr. Anthony call on me!” students who try to avoid eye contact and would rather do just about anything than be forced to answer a question, whether they know the right answer or not.

            We appear to have both types of people in our first reading and our Gospel today.  Isaiah is like the first type of student.  As Isaiah is caught up in ecstasy, seeing a vision of God on the throne with the Seraphim and the heavenly hosts, with incense rising, he is at first made aware of his sinfulness, but then, having been cleansed, he is all-too-ready to respond when the Lord asks, “‘Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?’” 

            In our Gospel, we see the second type of student in the person of St. Peter.  He is reluctant, doesn’t think he can succeed (both at fishing and at being a disciple), is all too aware of his sinfulness, and does not want to be called on.  But the Lord still chooses him, and, as we know the rest of the story, Jesus chooses Him to lead His Church as the first pope.

            God still calls.  Jesus still calls.  The Lord still asks, “Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?”  Jesus still asks us to be His disciples and put out into the deep waters.  Are we the type of person who says with Isaiah, “‘Here I am…send me!’”, or are we the type of person who says with St. Peter, “‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am…sinful’”?  In both cases, God is calling us.

            Some of you single men out there in the pews God is calling to be a priest.  I am sure of it!  God is calling you to abandon the safety and security of doing what only you think is best, and to follow Jesus in a new way, to conform your life to His, to be conformed through the Sacrament of Holy Order to Jesus the Priest so that His people can continue to be fed and nourished by the grace of the sacraments, especially the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.  Without priests, the People of God will not have their sins forgiven, nor will they be able to be so closely united to Jesus through Holy Communion. 

            Some of you single men or single women out there in the pews God is calling to be a consecrated brother or sister, or consecrated virgin.  Some of you God is calling to leave everything behind and to live out by the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in a religious community the life of Jesus who was poor, chaste, and obedient to the Father’s will.  Some of you women who have preserved as a treasured gift your virginity are called to consecrate your virginity to God, to hand it over to Him and to be espoused to Jesus Christ, the Divine Bridegroom for all eternity, even as you live in the world.

            Many of you men and women out there in the pews God is calling or has called to be married and be parents.  Others of you are single.  God is no less calling you to be holy.  In fact, God is calling you in a special way to sanctify the world by your presence, in ways that priests, religious, and consecrated virgins are not called.  God needs you to fill society with the leaven of the Gospel: your homes, your workplace, your rest, your vacation, politics, so that the City of Man looks more and more like the City of God.  God calls you to offer every part of your life to Him as an acceptable sacrifice, as Lumen gentium from the Second Vatican Council reminds us: “For all [the laity’s] works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne—all these become ‘spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’”  Without you, providing an example of holiness of life and fidelity to the teachings of God through His Church, the faith is not passed on, and people do not treasure the pearl of great price that a relationship with God is.

            Maybe we’re afraid that we’re too sinful.  So was Isaiah, so was St. Peter.  Maybe we don’t think we have what it takes.  If Isaiah or St. Peter knew everything that was ahead of them, they may have turned back.  But day-by-day they were strengthened by God to preach the Gospel, so others could believe.  This Wednesday we begin Lent.  Use this holy time to draw closer to the Lord, to learn more about Him, to get to know Him so that you are comfortable saying “yes” to Him.  All of the things we do—the fasting, the abstaining from meat, the giving up of certain good things, the extra acts of penance—all of these are meant to open us up so that it is easier for us to say “yes” to God.  It is all too easy to just do the “Lent thing” again.  Don’t waste your precious time just floating by.  Put out into deep waters!  Is it scary?  In some ways, yes!  It calls for radical trust in God to actually live according to the Gospel.  But Jesus won’t let you sink amid the waves of sea.  He will help you to make a great catch; He will help you to spread His Word that brings people happiness, and saves them from eternal death.  In the Holy Name of God I ask: Whom shall we send?  Who will go for us?  What is your answer?

Throw Your Life Away!!

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            As a seminarian, it was not uncommon to hear people talk about certain seminarians, and say, “Why is so-and-so throwing his life away?  He has such great potential!”  Bishop Mengeling, when we were on retreat as seminarians, would sometimes use that phrase to remind us of what we were doing with a twist, that we were truly throwing our life away for the Lord, just as a married couple throws their life away for each other.

            We often don’t think of throwing our life away as a positive thing.  That’s not the phrase we use to celebrate big events like an ordination, or a wedding (though the phrase may be tossed around at bachelor or bachelorette parties, or by heartbroken girls who would rather have a seminarian as the father of their children instead of being a spiritual father).    It generally has a negative connotation, as if we are wasting some sort of potential.  And yet, in our Gospel, the Lord is very clear: “‘whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.’”  It is as if Jesus is saying, “If you try not to throw away your life, you will, but if you throw away your life for me, you will truly preserve it.”

            When a man and woman pledge themselves to each other as husband and wife; or when a man is called to be a priest and responds to that call; or when a man or a woman respond to the call to be consecrated for the sake of the Kingdom; all those people are throwing away their lives.  The married couple is promising to stop looking for someone better with whom to share their entire life and with whom to have children.  The priest is promising to devote his life first and foremost to God, so that he can serve His people.  The consecrated man or woman is promising to devote him or herself to Christ and be a witness of what life will be like in the Kingdom of Heaven, especially through witnessing the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience in imitation of Jesus who was chaste, poor, and obedient. 

They are throwing away other opportunities that could have come up in their life in the future.  The husbands are throwing away the possibility that they will meet another woman, and the wives are throwing away the possibility that they will meet another man, who will be a suitable partner, a lifelong companion, and the person with whom they want to share physical intimacy and raise children.  The priest is throwing away the possibility of marriage and having biological children of his own so that he can have deep intimacy with Christ and be the caretaker of His bride, the Church.  The consecrated man or woman is throwing away the possibility of being a father or a mother, and, in the case of men and women religious, is throwing away the accumulation of wealth and the ability to direct their lives how they want, and when they want, and where they want.

And yet, as proof of what Jesus says (in case we don’t take Him at His word), the happiest people I have met are those who have thrown away their lives and not looked back.  I see it in couples that have been married, for example, for 50 years, who have spent a lifetime together, struggling to make ends meet, to raise children, to live out their faith, and while things haven’t always been easy, they always, without fail, say to me that they would do the same all over again if they had the chance.  I see it in the consecrated men and women, like Judith Stegman, a consecrated virgin, or Sr. Dorothy, our Director of Campus Ministry, or Sr. Liz, our Director of Senior Ministry, in the joy that they have found in consecrating their lives to Christ.  And I also see the overwhelming majority of my brother priests, who, though they have left all to follow Christ and serve His people, are already receiving 100-fold for what they have left behind.

What concerns me a little is that our culture does not encourage us to throw everything away for marriage, or consecrated life, or priesthood.  Whether it’s middle or high school students, or the college students at MSU, or even adults, so many are afraid to make any commitment, just in case there’s something better around the corner.  As a culture, we are afraid of commitment because it means that we may have to give up the future goods that we think we might possibly get by holding out.  Even in marriage, there is a general societal view that, if things don’t work out, you can always break it off in case you find something or someone better.  We see it especially in couples living together while dating or engaged, pretending to live a married life with each other under the same roof, in the same bed, but free to call it off in case something better comes along.  Only in marriage is that decision to throw it all away for the other protected, because both spouses commit to that marital love for the entire duration of their lives.  And sadly, Jesus’ words ring true that those who try to save it all, end up losing it.  Some studies state that 67%, or 2 out of 3 couples that live together before marriage, end up divorcing, and that it’s often in the first decade of their marriage. 

Is throwing it all away easy?  Certainly not.  There are times when a couple, or a consecrated man or woman, or a priest, feels the weight of the cross.  There are times when disciples have to experience people who metaphorically beat their back, or pluck their beard, or spit on their face.  But, when we throw it away, with God’s help, when we lose our life for the Son of Man and the gospel, then we can say with the prophet Isaiah from our first reading, “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame…See, the Lord God is my help.”  When we lose our life for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel, it is then that we, in fact, find it, and save it for eternal life.