\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don’t you feel it- the good news, the news that you have been delivered from the power of darkness and transferred to the Kingdom of God?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, you.\u00c2\u00a0 You may be having problems with your job; overwhelmed with the demands of your children; suffering from the aches and pains of older age; or pre-occupied with what your going to do after you leave here today.\u00c2\u00a0 But this good news is still for you and you should feel it!\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Apostles felt it.\u00c2\u00a0 Just imagine yourselves in their shoes.\u00c2\u00a0 You have fished all night- \u00c2\u00a0and you are an expert- a professional- but nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 And then you go out one more time at Jesus command, and, Walla, so many fish that they nearly sink two boats.\u00c2\u00a0 The gospel says “they left everything and followed him”.\u00c2\u00a0 So yes, they felt it.\u00c2\u00a0 They felt personally touched by the nearness of God; by the power of God; and by the reality of the one God of the universe calling them in person to follow him along his footsteps.\u00c2\u00a0 They somehow put the concerns they had over job, family, health, and duty into proper perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 The direct encounter with God was so important to them that they did that.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now later in the Gospel, we hear about Peter’s mother in law, for example.\u00c2\u00a0 So it isn’t like these Apostles abandoned or totally discounted family, health, job and duty.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, they were able to get the proper perspective on life, a perspective that Paul addresses in the first reading:\u00c2\u00a0 They were motivated to seek the knowledge of God’s will.\u00c2\u00a0 They were able to walk in a manner pleasing to Him; and through knowledge of God, they were strengthened by the power of God to learn endurance and patience.\u00c2\u00a0 This way of life led them to Christian joy.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a joy that all of the problems and trials of life, when these problems are experienced as a Christian, could not be taken away from them.\u00c2\u00a0 It is a joy sealed by the certain knowledge of their membership in everlasting life through Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a few moments, you are going to have a real encounter with Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 He will become present to you in the Eucharist.\u00c2\u00a0 He is making the same promise of everlasting life to you in the living word that we just read, so rejoice, and feel the joy, because life, no matter how burdensome it may seem, is worth it. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0 September 3, 2009 Thursday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time Col 1:9-14; Lk 5: 1-11 Dc. Larry Brockman Don’t you feel it- the good news, the news that you have been delivered from the power of darkness and transferred to the Kingdom of God?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, you.\u00c2\u00a0 You may be having problems with your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74"}],"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=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}