Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

God Always Takes The First Step

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, February 9, 2025

One of the many questions people ask me concerning my journey to the priesthood is “Why did you become a priest?’ When such a question is asked, people assume the decision to become a priest was entirely mine. They think I woke up one morning and made a decision to go into the seminary to become a priest. I am not sure there is any priest who thinks his yes to God was his initiative. How come? In the spiritual order, it is always God who takes the first step. The spiritual life always begins with an invasion of grace due to God’s perfect unmerited love. In his Last Supper discourse, Jesus echoes this very reality when he tells his Apostles, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain” (John 15:16). That means the initial desire of a young man to go into the seminary is not entirely his. It is God who plants the desire. And it is God who keeps that desire alive. The desire to give one’s whole heart to God is the invasion of grace started by God. The desire for friendship with Jesus is an invasion of grace initiated by God. The desire to save souls is an invasion of grace initiated by God. It is always God who says, “Come, follow me,” and not the other way round. Grace comes without our asking for it or manipulating it. What does grace mean? Grace means God’s favor or his graciousness to us.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11), we see the invasion and breakthrough of grace, the acknowledgement of sin, and the command to go on mission in full display. Luke says that Jesus is at the shore of the sea preaching. Then without asking for permission, and without being invited, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and begins to give orders. For a first century Galilean fisherman, a boat meant a lot. It wasn’t just a means of transportation, it was his whole livelihood. It is like his shop, a place of doing his business. Imagine someone getting into your car uninvited and starts telling you where to go. I don’t think you will like that. But this is what invasion of grace looks like. This is God taking the first step to initiate a relationship with Peter. Peter didn’t ask for it. He wasn’t expecting it or expecting some big changes in his life. He and his colleagues had worked hard all night without catching any fish. By morning, they were getting ready to go home in disappointment. Suddenly, Jesus shows up, enters his boat and commands: “put out into the deep” water. Every encounter with God is always an invitation, a summon to go into the deep. Some of us spend our lives fooling around on the outside, by the sea shore, and living in the shallows. We may be successful in the eyes of the world, but spiritually speaking, we are living our lives at the seashore. Like little kids, we are playing on the sand without entering into the water. But God doesn’t want that for us. He wants to bring us into the depth. So, he breaks into Peter’s life. He gets into Peter’s boat and orders him to stop playing around.

After being ordered to go into the deep, Peter protests, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing.” But after his initial protest, he submits to grace “but at your command I will lower the net.” He is an experienced fisherman. He knows the water; he knows how to fish in it. But the Lord is inviting him to trust, not in what he sees, but in what he hears. This is probably happening to you at this time in your life. You are trying to find happiness and peace but haven’t found it. You are trying to find spiritual meaning, but haven’t found it. Why? Because you are trying on your own terms. And as long as your effort is your own business, your own project, you are not going to get it. Look at Peter! The great moment happens when he willingly cooperates with grace. In every encounter with God, grace comes first. But once grace breaks through, God wants us to cooperate with his love. God does not turn us into passive puppets. He wants to awaken our minds, wills, hearts, bodies, energies in cooperation. As soon as Peter follows the promptings of grace, he finds so many fish that his boat begins to sink. Some people came to help him to prevent his boat from going under. What does that mean? When you allow Jesus to get into your life, you let him command you, you allow him to be the Lord of your life, you stop playing along the seashore, you stop playing around with your own projects, you are going to find so much life that overwhelms you and in fact, attracts other people to take in some of the life you have been given. This is exactly what we find in the life of all the saints. People get attracted to the saints. Why? Because there is so much life and grace around them. 

In the wake of this invasion of grace, Simon acknowledges his sin: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Check this out! The acknowledgment of sin did not come from the very beginning. It is not the sine qua non for grace. It is not when you say you are sorry that grace is given to you. That’s not how it works. The confession of sin is always the consequence of the invasion of grace. In the light that Christ brings, Peter sees his own inadequacies. When you compare your life and the life that Jesus is offering you, you will definitely acknowledge your sinfulness. One of the signs that you are not doing well in your spiritual life is when you are reluctant to admit your sinfulness. Once you agree that everything is fine and great with you, that’s a sign that you are not standing in the light of grace. Following Simon’s acknowledgment of his sins, Jesus does not say to him, you are okay. Rather he says to him, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” That means, go and become an agent of grace you have received for other people. But why does God invade our lives? Because he wants us to be fully alive. The glory of God is the human person fully alive. God does not want us to play around like kids. He wants us plugged, grafted and connected into the great adventure of the spiritual life. He wants us to be spiritually alert and not to be carried away or distracted by the affairs of this world. Everything we do should be done with a keen sense of God’s presence. 

God bless you!