By Deacon Richard Hay
“Surrendering…”
In all our readings today, there is a theme of “surrendering”. I don’t know about you, but most of the time when I hear the word “surrendering or surrender” it does not invoke a positive connotation, but it tends to take on a negative meaning along the lines of “giving up” or “losing”. Of course, we never want to “give up” because that is usually seen as an indicator of failure.
However, the theme of “surrendering” in today’s readings and the gospel is not about giving up or losing. It is about receiving the precious gift of eternal life by surrendering our will to God’s will.
That is a winning form of surrender because when we surrender to God’s will for our lives, it will result in our being blessed beyond measure because nothing makes God happier than when we hand our lives over to him completely.
With that said, it is still not an easy undertaking to surrender to God’s will because we as humans tend to want to be in control of all things in our lives.
Blessed Carlo Acutis, the young man who died of Lukemia at the age of 15 and offered all his suffering for the church was beatified about four years ago in Assissi, described this type of surrender to God in one of his journals.
He wrote:
“If we consider ourselves to be passing through this world, if we act as though we are temporary, if we aspire to what is Up Above, if we set our lives up based on the Beyond, if we base our existence on the Afterlife, then everything comes into order, everything becomes balanced, everything is oriented, everything is fed by hope.”
Take for example the story of Jonah in our first reading, Jonah is going to Nineveh. Jonah is instructed by God to go and preach to the Ninevites. When he refused, we all know what happens – he ends up in the belly of a whale for three days. However, God is persistent, and Jonah ends up on the shores of Nineveh despite his reluctance to obey God. He then willingly submits to God’s will even though Jonah himself is imperfect. In fact, Jonah doesn’t even get across the entire city preaching before the word spreads and the hearts of the Ninevites are changed and they repent and conformed to God’s will and God chooses not to destroy them.
The second reading is a little tougher to follow because we have St. Paul telling the Corinthians that if they have wives then they should act like they don’t have wives; that if they are weeping then they should act like they are not weeping; those rejoicing as if they are not rejoicing and so on. Paul is speaking rhetorically in this letter and does not literally mean the people of Corinth should not be married, or weeping, rejoicing, and otherwise living their lives, but he is reminding them that even though we need to live today and do these various things as we live in this world, we should always keep our mind on doing God’s will and that like Blessed Carlo wrote, this world is just a temporary part of our journey to eternal life. That means we must surrender to God’s will and change our lives like the Ninevites did so that we can one day stand in front of the throne of our Lord for judgement and show how we fulfilled that line in the Lord’s Prayer that reads “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
In the gospel, we hear Jesus’s reaction to the arrest of John the Baptist as he proclaims that “This is the time of fulfillment…” and that the “Kingdom of God is at hand…” and then he tells everyone to “Repent and believe in the gospel…”.
This is another reminder that the ways of men and this world are not the ways of God. He calls us to surrender to His will and live out the gospel life without any variations, modifications, or hesitation because as Jesus says in Matthew about His second coming, “but of that day and hour no one knows” and He wants us to be ready for that day through his will so that He can then at the final judgement tell us – “Well done, good and faithful servant”. The way we get ready for that moment during our earthly lives is by turning ourselves over completely to God’s will.
The second part of today’s gospel shows us examples of complete surrender to God’s will when he calls His first apostles at the Sea of Galilee.
He first calls out to Simon and Andrew, and we see that they “abandoned their nets and followed him”.
A little further down the shore he sees James and John with their father Zebedee in their fishing boat. Jesus calls them and they “left their father in the boat and followed him”.
No hesitation – just complete surrender to God’s will and call.
Now, I have sat out there in those pews for nearly 40 years since I professed the Catholic faith and entered the church in 1987. I have listened to many homilies over those years where I heard similar messages as I have shared with you today. So, I have a pretty good sense of what might be running through some of your minds right now as you hear me say this because I had those same thoughts and that was “Well, easy for you to say…”
I would agree – it is easier said than done – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t persevere in surrendering to God in our lives each and every day and God is always going to be there waiting for us to open the door to Him. I can also attest to the easier said than done statement as well in my own vocation.
See, I began hearing a calling to ordained ministry shortly after I was received into the church. I thought it was just excitement about finally being able to participate in the full communion of the church after RCIA.
Little did I know that those promptings, which I did not respond to, would last for 20 years. It wasn’t until I was in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament during adoration, that I finally said yes to God’s call. Even after that, it was still another 13 years before I was ordained to the diaconate.
Whatever our vocation is, and we are all each called to some vocation in our lives – such as being married and raising a family, professing as a religious sister, brother or maybe as a member of a secular religious fraternity like the Franciscans, or even a deacon or priest – it does require discernment and putting ourselves in the presence of God.
I encourage all of us to spend that time with the Lord – spend it in quiet reflection and listen for the voice of God because his presence is in us and all around us if we but slow down and listen for his voice in the quiet of our hearts.
By the way, a wonderful opportunity is coming up in just a few weeks here at our parish mission which will focus on the presence of God in our lives.
You have likely seen the signs in the narthex, outside as you come in from the parking lot, and info in the bulletin. That mission, which is being presented by three Dominican Friars of the Angelicum in Rome, Italy, will be all about the presence of God. Confession and Eucharistic Adoration will be available during every mission talk and on the last day a powerful Eucharistic Healing Service will be available to bless all our parishioners and any visitors who attend the mission.
If you have any questions about the mission just let me know. We hope and pray all of you will choose to join us.
