{"id":8728,"date":"2022-02-05T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=8728"},"modified":"2022-02-05T07:55:26","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T12:55:26","slug":"from-fr-tom-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2022\/02\/05\/from-fr-tom-66\/","title":{"rendered":"From Fr. Tom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hopefully your week was blessed.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s hard to believe we<\/span>\u2019<\/span>re already welcoming February 2022. <\/span>I thought that we just started the New Year, January of this year is already <\/span>gone. Hmm<\/span>… <\/span>time flies by, doesn<\/span>\u2019<\/span>t it. Only one more month and we will <\/span>begin Lent<\/span>… <\/span>just stop Father, that<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s enough. Let<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s focus on the moment, <\/span>let<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s focus on right now, because God comes with his grace in the moment, <\/span>he comes now, not yesterday, not tomorrow but NOW! So, be present and <\/span>in the moment to meet Him!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflecting on today<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s Gospel passage I<\/span>\u2019<\/span>d like to start with the word <\/span>NOTHING! That is what Peter and the others caught after fishing all night. <\/span>Nothing. After a long night with no sleep, they are now washing their nets <\/span>by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus needed a suitable place to preach to the crowds <\/span>and commandeered Peter<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s boat. Peter was undoubtedly tired and <\/span>disappointed after a fruitless night<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s work, but he had a generous heart <\/span>and provided Jesus with the pulpit he needed. Jesus<\/span>\u2019 <\/span>command to fish <\/span>again after catching nothing all night did not make much sense, and in any <\/span>case, the fish would have a better chance of seeing the boats and nets in <\/span>the daylight. A second time we see Peter<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s generosity; he goes fishing at <\/span>Jesus<\/span>\u2019 <\/span>request. And what a reward he got. Not just one boat full of fish, but <\/span>two boats full of fish, and so many fish that the nets began to tear and the <\/span>boats were at the point of sinking. Jesus<\/span>\u2019 <\/span>generosity has more than <\/span>matched the generosity of Peter. <\/span><\/p>\n

We can imagine that if Peter had a very successful night fishing he <\/span>would not have wanted to go fishing again. Surely the fact that he caught <\/span>nothing prepared him to go out again to fish. Having nothing prepared his <\/span>heart to listen to what Jesus would say and carry it out. It is very often the <\/span>case since then; having nothing prepares our heart to receive Jesus, and <\/span>there are many types of such emptiness preparing our heart for Jesus. If <\/span>our hearts are full of other things we do not have room for Jesus. When we have nothing, we have room for Jesus.<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

God speaks to us in our own language sometimes, for example, by <\/span>means of a miraculous catch of fish. When Jesus was born, those studying <\/span>the stars saw a special star in the sky. In Acts 10, Peter was hungry, and <\/span>God gave him a vision of all kinds of creatures, including those that were <\/span>considered common and unclean, commanding him to eat. This is to show <\/span>that no person is unclean in God<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s eyes. In today<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s Gospel, God speaks <\/span>again in our language; Jesus gave Peter the huge catch of fish to symbolize <\/span>his future ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we see another kind of emptiness in Peter as he says, <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Depart <\/span>from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.<\/span>\u201d <\/span>He recognizes his unworthiness <\/span>before Christ, but once again, Jesus fills that emptiness, <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Do not be afraid; <\/span>from now on, you will be catching men.<\/span>\u201d <\/span>Peter received a miraculous <\/span>catch of fish because he had nothing but a generous willing heart. Now he <\/span>receives his vocation from Jesus when he acknowledges his unworthiness. <\/span>So, it is okay to have nothing and be unworthy. Jesus provides more than <\/span>we would have hoped and calls us despite our unworthiness. All that is <\/span>necessary is the generous willingness of Peter and Jesus does the rest. <\/span><\/p>\n

Be generous and God will do the rest! <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

May God bless all of you! <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fr. Tom<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hopefully your week was blessed. It\u2019s hard to believe we\u2019re already welcoming February 2022. I thought that we just started the New Year, January of this year is already gone. Hmm… time flies by, doesn\u2019t it. Only one more month and we will begin Lent… just stop Father, that\u2019s enough. Let\u2019s focus on the moment, let\u2019s focus on right now, because God…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fr-tom","ctfw-no-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8728"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8730,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions\/8730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}