{"id":402,"date":"2013-09-05T22:18:15","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T03:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=402"},"modified":"2013-09-07T22:26:07","modified_gmt":"2013-09-08T03:26:07","slug":"on-wakeup-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=402","title":{"rendered":"On Wakeup Calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 22nd<\/sup> Week in Ordinary Time<\/h2>\n

Blessed Theresa of Calcutta<\/h2>\n

Col 1: 9-14; Luke 5: 1-11<\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

An \u201caha\u201d experience!\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened to the Apostles in this morning\u2019s Gospel.<\/p>\n

Picture the scene again in your mind.\u00a0 You wake up early in the morning to go to work, just like any other day.\u00a0 You work hard as a Fisherman most of the early morning hours,but catch absolutely nothing.\u00a0 And then, this stranger asks you to pull your boat out again.\u00a0 You are weary- but decide to be nice and comply.\u00a0 So out you go.\u00a0 This stranger uses your boat to preach to a crowd.\u00a0 You listen, but you are a fisherman; you\u2019re not looking for something new.\u00a0 When he finishes, he asks you to lower your nets.\u00a0 Now you are cynical, thinking- \u201cLike yeah, I\u2019ve fished all night and nothing; and now this preacher wants me to try again.\u201d\u00a0 Only before you know it, the nets are heavy with fish.\u00a0 This is something special; this is extraordinary!\u00a0 This man must be special and maybe I should listen to him.\u00a0 You have had an \u201caha\u201d experience.\u00a0 And your life will never be the same.<\/p>\n

You see, God called these simple fishermen to a different life.\u00a0 Granted, it was a loud, unmistakable call rather than a quiet, soft nudge.\u00a0 But they left everything right there, and followed Jesus.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t have to, you know.\u00a0 They could have reveled in the wealth of fish they had just caught, and said, \u201cThank you sir, but we\u2019ve got to get these fish to market.\u201d\u00a0 That would have meant they were into doing their own. \u00a0\u00a0They didn\u2019t do that though; they dropped everything and followed Jesus.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 2000 years now to another incident.\u00a0 It is another kind of calling, but an \u201caha\u201d experience none the less.\u00a0 A nun is travelling on a train in India in 1946.\u00a0 More than a decade earlier she had devoted her life to teaching as a nun.\u00a0 But a quiet little voice inside tells her that she should drop everything and go out into the streets and minister to the poor.\u00a0 She could have gone on with life as well.\u00a0 After all, she was already living a life of service.\u00a0 But, she regarded the message of the little voice as an order, not a request.\u00a0 We know her as Mother Theresa.\u00a0 And Blessed Mother Theresa\u2019s feast day is today.<\/p>\n

During the course of our lives, we will hear loud voices and soft voices and everything in between calling us, begging for our attention.\u00a0 They could be the voice of God.\u00a0 They could be our \u201caha\u201d experience.<\/p>\n

The darnedest thing about these aha experiences is that they will come at the most inconvenient times. \u00a0\u00a0They come when we are busy and just can\u2019t afford to listen; they come when we have finally just gotten the opportunity to relax; and they even come via people we would rather not have anything to do with.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way God works because he wants us to stretch for him, to drop everything and follow.\u00a0 They come at various stages of life because we are always being called to grow, no matter how much growth we have already had!<\/p>\n

And so, be on the lookout for these calls.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t necessarily life changing experiences like they were for the Apostles and Mother Theresa.\u00a0 Most of them are less dramatic than that.\u00a0 They are nudges toward God\u2019s will for us- an inclination to help a stranger in need; a sudden impulse to do something special- like attend an Emmaus retreat or visit the Perpetual Adoration Chapel.\u00a0 But they are rich opportunities to get to know the Lord.\u00a0 And they are sources of pure joy for those who respond to them.<\/p>\n

If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time Blessed Theresa of Calcutta Col 1: 9-14; Luke 5: 1-11 Dc. Larry Brockman   An \u201caha\u201d experience!\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened to the Apostles in this morning\u2019s Gospel. Picture the scene again in your mind.\u00a0 You wake up early in the morning to go to work, just like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[237,239,238],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}