I once read a story about a village where one of the ways the village would get food was to pull a large net across the bay. Each day men would gather on each side of the bay to pull this net across. This story isn’t too remarkable except for one thing: the only ones in the village who would do this job were the Christians. The reason why the Christians were the only ones was because they were the only ones who could handle it if the net failed to catch anything. This was because they believed that God was in control of their fate.
It was also said that during the Great Depression many businessmen took their own lives when they had lost everything. The Christians, on the other hand, simply went back to work. In the Second Reading, we heard St Paul say, “rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks at all times.” This seems like a really nice thing to say, of course, like a cheerleader telling the team to work harder, while being safe on the sidelines. However, we know St Paul did not stay safe on the sidelines, he was a warrior for the faith and suffered many hardships and here he is saying this. This a great, but supremely challenging, saying yet it really is the fulfilment of setting the prisoners free from the First Reading. How are prisoners freed, how are the broken mended and raised up? Because God is in control and we are no longer slaves, we are fellow coworkers with God. This is the truth and if we believe it we are free. God is in control which is why the Christians could fish and not be afraid. This why the Christians could simply go back to work because they knew that it was all in the hands of God and He could make good come out of any situation. The hard part is to get to this belief and live it.
I have heard that from a young age we start trying to gain control over our lives. The first thing we can do is decide what goes in our mouths and we gain a sense of power. Later, we gain mastery over our bowels and we can use that for power. We grow up thinking that happiness comes from being in control, yet it is not so. Happiness comes from trusting that someone else who loves you is in control, someone who will not allow something to happen that could not be redeemed or profitable for us. Israel’s legacy carries on to us. Their problem was they did not trust God. Our problem is we do not trust God. We are still trying to desperately be in control and when we feel out of control or helpless we turn to things we can control, such as what we put in our mouths or even worse. Then we notice we are not in control and our choices have hurt us. There is a way out and it is what St Paul says. When things happen thank God and pray constantly, giving thanks that God can make something good come out of it. Now you might be thinking wait a minute does that mean God could stop all kinds of evil, and if so, why doesn’t He? I would if I were God. It doesn’t mean that. God, we know, hates sin but He is in charge and can redeem sin, He can transform sin. Our praying constantly helps us to stay with Him and profit from the situation. The fishermen first mentioned were able to work their hard task because they knew God would look after them, one way or another, they just had to be faithful. Do we rejoice anyways and pray constantly, giving thanks in every situation? If not, we need to start.
I saw another thing in this reading, that when we don’t do this we quench the Holy Spirit. We might feel that the Holy Spirit is leading us on a wild goose chase but He is really looking to do miracles in our lives. For example, this last week two people asked me for help which I couldn’t do on my own. I felt inspired to ask the CWL and Knights and they helped one person. Another asked for gift cards to get groceries. Once again I was in a bind because I couldn’t afford to help them and so, being inspired, I asked for help, and in five minutes had over two hundred dollars in gift cards for the person. I then had no time to deliver them and someone else did that for me. This is why we have to rejoice and pray and give thanks to God because He has it all figured out, so we don’t have to worry if we don’t and we can trust Him. So rejoice always, even wear pink to show how happy and blessed we are. Our Saviour is near and He has it all figured out.