Sometimes people find it difficult to enter into the text that are proclaimed at Mass and at ceremonies. So you need to have a good imagination to really get a feel for what is proclaimed. In the first reading, Isaiah is in his country and the king has died. What does it mean for a king to die in a place like that? It=s politically unstable and very, very unsure. So he=s upset and he wonders what is going to happen. So Isaiah goes to the temple and as he is praying all of a sudden the Lord reveals to him, even deeper how things are. Isaiah thinks they are bad. The Lord says, AThey are a lot worse than that.@ The people are in sin and you are one of them. So he cries out, AWoe is me.@ Then what happens? Immediately the angel comes, purifies him, and he senses the call to respond to God to raise the people up by going out and preaching the word and giving the people a direction in life so they get out of their sinfulness.

            In the second reading Paul is viciously attacking the church. He is a good Jew. He knows that these Christians, who claim to be the fulfillment of the Jewish promises, can=t possibly be right. The Old Testament says, ACursed is the person who dies on the tree.@ So Jesus couldn=t possibly be the Son of God. So Paul begins to persecute. Quite throughly. What does the Lord do? He appears to him. Paul never saw Jesus walking in Palestine. He meets Jesus in glory, so Paul knows he is the Son of God right from the start. The net result is he turns around and after a few things that are necessary, he is also sent to do what? To lift up the people of God. If you know anything about Paul=s life he went forth whole hog. He didn=t hold anything back and he really spread the good news over the whole Mediterranean basin in his lifetime.

            Then we have the gospel. Peter is simply doing his ordinary everyday chores. He=s a fisherman. Of course he has heard Jesus preach and Jesus steps into his boat and begins to preach off the shore. After the preaching is over he says, APull out into the deep and cast your nets.@ Peter gives him a typical fisherman=s answer, AIt=s crazy to fish during the daytime, we fish at night. But at your word I will do it.@ All of a sudden he catches so many fish that he has to bring Andrew to help him and he becomes a fisher of men.

            If we focus on the Apostles, or on Peter, and Paul and Isaiah, we really haven=t heard the whole good news. The real good news is that God pursues His people and raises up people to further their growth and unfolding for the kingdom. Which means, God is pursuing us a lot more than we pursue Him. And He raises us up precisely to be at the service of each other and grow in the capacity of a mature spiritual life that is to become a loving presence as God is. So how is it that myself, Brother Peter, Brother Richard, Brother Mario, and Brother Victor heard the same God? And all of us here. We too have ordinary experiences. We have an interior grace that says, AI=m looking for something deeper.@ Then I come and visit St. Andrew=s Abbey and I find out these men are doing the kind of things I like, they pray, they work, they live together in community and something special about them. So I=m drawn. When I come I discover a presence. I discover that this is not my house, not their house, it=s the Lord=s house. The Lord is the one who makes us brothers and to live together.

            So we begin to take the steps to enter the school of the Lord=s service which is really a school of love. We discover what it means to live a life of a rhythm of prayer and work that the chapel becomes an ordinary experience of meeting the Lord daily and a number of times daily. But not just for ourselves. We pour out our hearts before the Lord to bring His mercy upon our relatives and friends, our benefactors, and above all the whole world. God loves us so much that He is pursuing us. Later on when this ceremony continues and they give me a cane at the healthy age of seventy-one because I=m fifty years in monastic life, it=s not a sign of my future. It=s a positive sign that the journey will be reached and victory will come and the fruitfulness of my life will indeed happen. To celebrate consecrated life is first and foremost to realize that we are allowing God to take full control, and possession of our life. That=s the best insurance you can get anywhere. It costs you no premiums and it gives you the best caring person to relate to. So God will pursue you. He will guide you. He will correct you like Paul and turn you around. He will make your life victorious. If you understand what it means to say, AI will follow you!@ We have plenty of witnesses. In my own life I remember being at St. Procopius and I remember a couple of priests who even though they were busy teaching college classes their faces were radiant. Already the joy and the presence of God had penetrated their hearts. For that to take place we must seriously enter this journey. We must be willing and trusting that no matter what happens it=s in good hands and it=s moving me toward fullness. Not just for myself but for others.

            This is a real great celebration. It means the Lord finally cornered us to be totally committed so that we would receive the peace, the joy, and the love that is His and to bring it to our world. That makes us witnesses to all of you to remind you that you consecrated yourself also when you were baptized. That you too are God=s possession and He will not leave undone what He=s begun in you.

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