just recently I had the privilege of
saying Mass for about 300 seminarians
and the gospel for that weekend was
taken from the fourth chapter of Matthew
and was particularly appropriate for
priests and seminarians I want to
reflect on this and my focus audience
really is priests and seminarians but
anyone else that wants to listen eyes is
more than welcome to because it has
residents really for any serious
Christian it's the story of the call the
first disciples and we hear this of
course as he Jesus was walking by the
Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers Simon
was called Peter his brother Andrew
casting a net into the sea they were
fishermen he said to them come after me
I will make you fishers of men so a
famous line which resonates in the heart
I think of anyone who feels a call to
the priesthood certainly fishers of men
he wants to fish people out of something
the implication is there's there's a sea
that people are swimming in that is just
not good for them well it wouldn't be
hard today to find what that sea is is
the sea of a secularist ideology which
says you can be perfectly happy with the
goods of the world
and I've said many times this does great
violence to the human heart because as
Agustin said the heart is wired for God
our heart is restless to look rest in
God we are ordered by an innate natural
desire toward ultimate truth ultimate
goodness ultimate beauty and so no truth
goodness or beauty in this world no
wealth pleasure honor or power in this
world could finally satisfy that longing
in the heart which is why the secularist
ideology is a deadening ideology why it
is an immature
to spiritual structure of the human
heart and so the image to me of fish is
a good one I think of a lot of people
today who are kind of floating around
aimlessly dead-eyed glassy-eyed in this
sea
of the secularist ideology they might
have a lot of wealth and pleasure and
honor I run them all the time I hear
from them all the time but they are like
fish glassy-eyed aimless in the sea of
secularism Jesus wants helpers who can
fish people out of this morass and
that's the call down through the ages in
some sense that every Christopher I
think in a specific way to to priests to
be fishers of men there's also reference
just prior to the section I run and it
was in the gospel that I preached on
where Matthew cites the prophet Isaiah
land of Zebulun land of Naphtali the way
to the sea galilee of the gentiles the
people that sit in darkness have seen a
great light
well the reference there is to the
region really where Jesus was from up
there in the kind of northwest part of
the promised land
Zebulon enough tally were ravaged by the
Assyrian invaders back in the tenth
century BC it was a land that was
particularly affected by the Assyrian
invasion people were killed in prison
many carried off into exile the people
that walk in darkness have seen a great
light the point is people today in the
grip of the secular ideology are like
people in the land of Zebulun and
Naphtali there in the darkness of this
spirit deadening point of view the
people that walk in darkness have seen a
great light where the light is Christ
himself who's come into this place to
bring light Jesus is calling followers
now to be light bearers to the land of
Zebulun and Naphtali okay so that's the
mission that's the call how do you get
there what's required if you do this
work listen I will make you fishers of
men at once they left their nets and
followed him now your Galilean fishermen
in the first century your net so they
would they would sort of cast these nets
out that were weighted and the net would
go down and would catch the fish
it was the principle tool of a Galilean
fisherman
the net therefore symbolized if you want
livelihood
professionalism their connection to the
economic world it meant security if you
took a galilean fisherman's net away you
were taking away his livelihood so they
leave their nets
it means they left their preoccupation
with livelihood and money and financial
security they let go of that in order to
follow Jesus and to do what he wants
now listen his story goes on he walked
along from there and saw two other
brothers James the son of Zebedee and
his brother John they were in a boat
with their father Zebedee mending their
nets
he called them and immediately they left
their boat and their father and followed
him so two more brothers two more
fishermen James and John preoccupied of
course with their nets as any fisherman
would just as a you know first they
might be practically with us with his
tools or with his car or whatever his
professional you know vehicle is so here
they were tending their nets there in a
boat with their father they leave both
boat and father and follow him what's a
boat well it was an essential part of a
fisherman's livelihood but also think of
it as a symbol of their own autonomy
you're a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee
your boat that was it I mean you were
the captain of that boat you were the
navigator that boat you used that boat
for your purposes that was your life now
they're saying I'm abandoning boat I'm
abandoning my autonomy because I'm now
going to get into his boat I'm going to
do what he wants I'm going to go where
he leads me I'm going to follow him they
surrender their autonomy secondly they
left their father Zebedee
there was no Society maybe ever history
more family-centric than the Society of
Jesus time your duties and obligations
to your mother to your father your
brothers and sisters your even your
extended family were enormous
they were life too fine
that's why it's so shocking
by the way when Jesus says in the
Gospels you know to the guy that says
I'll follow you but first let me bury my
father well that's something the most
sacred obligation you can imagine Jesus
says let the dead bury their dead he
says unless you love me more than your
mother and father well ice extraordinary
thing your mother and father it was the
most pressing obligation you had unless
you love me more than them or the woman
you know how I blessed her the the
breasts that nursed you in the womb that
bore you know blessed rather those who
hear the word of God and keep it is he
against families nobody's relativizing
families
he's relativizing the claim of a family
on you what's most important is your
relationship to him they leave their
nets that means livelihood money
security they leave their boats that
means autonomy they leave their father
that means all their obligations to the
family and they go after him now for
priests and seminarians correlate these
three things to three of the most
important promises that we make they
left their nets dicen please don't make
a vow of poverty but we make a sort of
commitment to simplicity of life for us
money
and financial security can't be
paramount it can't be we we eschew those
we accept a simplicity of life why
because we got to be free we got to be
free to follow him where he wants us to
go we can't have our nets as it were
entangled in all the values and goods of
the world
secondly they leave their boats leave
their autonomy one of the great promises
of priests makes is to obey the bishop
and his successors so 28 years ago I
knelt before Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
of Chicago I put my hands in his hands
and I promised obedience to him and his
successors well I knew him a little bit
not real well but I knew him a little
bit
I guess I I trust what he's gonna do III
know what to expect but hey I didn't
know who Frances George even was when I
made that promise Cardinal Bernardin
successor carnal joy I know idea was but
yet I was making a promise of obedience
to him what was I saying and indeed that
promise has had a huge impact in my life
because of my obedience to him my life
has taken a whole directions I never
would have imagined
I left the boat
I left the boat behind it wasn't me my
boat I wasn't in control but rather I'm
gonna follow the Lord and it finally
priest make a promise of celibacy and I
want to press this in terms of leaving
your father it doesn't just mean that
these particular people my family are
now not the primary value of my life
it's also the demand and expectation of
the family in ancient times as well as
in modern times what's the primary
expectation of a family well that you
would carry on the name that you would
give rise to children that you would be
part of this great heritage when you
make a vow of celibacy you're doing many
things but one of them is you're saying
no raising up children to my father is
not my main value carrying on my family
tradition is not my primary value but
rather generating spiritual children for
Christ in the church so I told the
seminarians think of these three things
they leave their nets they leave their
boat they leave their father as
evocative of these three great moves
simplicity of life obedience and
celibacy terrible burdens owner wrist
responsibilities no no don't seem that
way see them rather as invitations to
freedom so that we can be free fully to
be the fishers of men that Jesus needs