Thursday 9-3-09

Thursday September 3, 2009 of the 22nd week of ordinary time
The feast of St Gregory the Great
Readings: Colossians 1: 9-14 Psalm 98: Luke 5: 1-11
Psalm response: " The Lord makes known His salvation"

Verses 9-12, in the New American translation of Paul's letter to the Colossians is one long sentence!
In it Paul breathlessly relates his love for the Colossian community and his constant prayer on their behalf.
His mandate to them was for their strength to persevere and imitate him by thanking God for His welcoming them into the community of Christ through the forgiveness of sin , the evidence of their salvation.

Although the Psalmist related the message to the children of Israel, we, as the adopted children of God can be assured of His love when we do His Will in all things.

God, at times uses ordinary, every day events to convince us of His love and His expectations for us. In using Simon's boat to preach His word to skeptical people to His way, He has Peter, James and John, fishing partners, who had fished all day to no avail to make another attempt to get a catch.
He obviously wasn't a fisherman but His words were so convincing, they reluctantly lowered their nets to assuage Him. The result was a massive catch.
Each in his turn paid Christ homage. Jesus then commissioned them to be fishers of men.
How often have we thought our example and exhortation of our Faith would be useless in our indifferent world?
Who knows our random act of kindness and compassion, might be what's needed to save a soul from sinking into the morass of our sinful society, into the safe harbor of our Faith!