I’VE heard them preach for the first time in class, all nineteen of them who have followed Jesus to be his future priests.
They come from varied ages, some in their 20’s and others in their 30’s and 40’s. They also come from different cultures, states, dioceses, and religious orders. There are some who heard the call when they were young and others only later in their lives. Two of them used to work in the grocery industry, a few in education, one in entertainment, others in law and business.
They’ve all impressed me with their faith, eagerness, and genuine motives to respond to the call of Jesus to be his apostles, especially in these post-modern and challenging times of the Catholic Church. They show these noble attributes in the writing and delivery of their homilies and in their prayer times.
When many of us feel that our “fishing nets” are empty and our hopes are crushed in regard to priestly vocation, the faith and stories of these nineteen men in my preaching class can raise our hope and confirm our belief that Jesus is very much alive in our Church and our lives. He continues to call people to follow this difficult path of discipleship and to trust Him with their whole lives.
The Gospel on this Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, the week before the First Sunday of Lent, is a good source of the fidelity and wonder of Jesus.
When Peter and the other disciples were ready to pack their nets after fishing in vain all day and all night long, the Lord surprised them with a great catch.
In the same way, Jesus will never leave us with vacant churches, altars, and seminaries. He continues to show this by stirring faith in our people and priestly vocation in our youth and adults. We’ll just have to look at the “great catch” of people who never fail to flock our churches in contrast to some images of empty pews that some newspapers have depicted.
We’ll just have to meet our seminarians to hear their awe-inspiring vocation stories.
Some of our priests and bishops may have betrayed us and have lost our trust, but we believe that a new dawn has come to our Church. Our leaders have learned from their grave mistakes and are ready to move on to an era of change and renewal. And many of our people are willing to continue to believe in us and support our ministries.
There will never be empty pews to give praise and thanks to God every Sunday and everyday. And there will never be hearts empty of love and willingness to serve God and his people, as long as we continue to believe that He is in charge and will keep on doing miracles in our lives and the world.
So let’s lower our “nets” and allow God to surprise us with a Great Catch!
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].