Sunday Homily - Invasion and Mission

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WYD Panama – FIAT Festival – Conference Hall for ~9,000 people.  Adoration with homily – Bishop Robert Barron.  Gave great homily.  Should have stolen it.

God, by his free gift, invades into our life.  He makes us uncomfortable – like we reflected on last week.  How is God challenging me to make my life uncomfortable?  He “gets into our boat” and we must cooperate with it, as Simon did, to allow God to work through us.

The Encounter with God is never earned.  Always un-earned.  We can pray every day, do charity, follow the commandments, but our spiritual life is not a never ending high-point.  Sometimes, God is Something never forgotten.

God always is working, but not always as we can see.  (iceberg)

Unworthiness is the right response to the encounter with God.  When the Lord comes to us and chooses to share Himself with us in a specific way, we should naturally say: I don’t deserve this.  Just as when the light shines through the window, it is then that we see how dirty it is.

As Isaiah, Paul, and Simon Peter today encounter God, they all admit their sins, their failings, their weakness.  This is true humility.

But we can’t allow that reality to paralyze us.  God knows our sins and still loves us.  He chooses us.  He doesn’t make junk, and sin doesn’t make you junk.  And ultimately, through confession of sin, God forgives us.

We have the sacrament of Confession for ourselves to encounter God’s mercy.

But it doesn’t end there.  Finally, God has a mission for them, and he has one for each of us.  The Encounter with God always leads us to be changed, more than just being forgiven.  And change isn’t easy, isn’t comfortable.  Sometimes we dream too small.  Perhaps always we dream too small, playing in the shallow waters of the things of this world, when God really wants us to be out in the deep waters of things that last forever.  What way is God dreaming bigger than I am?  How does God want something more than me?

How is God asking you to be fisher of men?  To bring people into the life of the Church, of the Kingdom of God, is not some small thing.