FOODFORTHOUGHT

September 4, 2014
Thursday 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 3: 18-23 / Ps 24: 1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6/ Lk 5: 1-11

Reading: 1 Cor 3: 18-23
Do not deceive yourselves. If anyone of you considers himself wise in the ways of the world, let him become a fool, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's eyes. To this, Scripture says: God catches the wise in their own wisdom. It also says: The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is useless. Because of this, let no one become an admirer of humans, for everything belongs to you, Paul, Apollos, Cephas — life, death, the present and the future. Everything is yours, and you, you belong to Christ, and Christ is of God.   

Gospel: Luke 5:1-1
One day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around him listening to the word of God, he caught sight of two boats left at the water's edge by the fishermen now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to pull out a little from the shore. There he sat and continued to teach the crowd. When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch." Simon replied, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if you say so, I will lower the nets." This they did and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats almost to the point of sinking. Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus' knees, saying, "Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made and so were Simon's partners, James and John, Zebedee's sons. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on." So they brought their boats to land and followed him, leaving everything.

Reflection:
     Have you experienced Jesus knocking at your door? What was your response? Did you ignore the knocking and acted like a deaf person? Did you open the door and wholeheartedly welcomed Jesus into your heart?
     As a member of a Catholic charismatic community, our group would send missionaries to other countries to spread the Word of God. We were asked last year to serve in Africa as volunteer missionaries. The agreement was that we pay for our own plane fares but our hosts will provide for our lodging and meals. We said YES right away not even thinking how much was the airfare to Africa. When we learned that the airfare was very expensive and we had to go there two to three times a year, we said to God: "Lord, we said YES to you and it's not our problem anymore where we will get the funds for our airfares. I completely trust you that you will provide the funds."
     Our God is indeed a great God, for during our prayer time, as if on cue to "cast the net at the other side of the boat ... from now on, you shall be fishers of men", we were led into selling a property that we had owned. "Start storing your treasurers in heaven. Your earthly possessions mean nothing to me. You use "my money" to "catch" my people in Africa."
     Following Jesus is not easy. There will be times in our lives that Jesus will ask us to go the extra mile for Him. Will we still continue to ignore him or say YES to Jesus right away by recognizing his voice and trusting his lead?

Prayer Requests:
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary
… for families who are in need of healing
… for world peace and reconciliation
… for the birthday intentions of Marcelino Billanes

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

Have a good day!

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