Pride is a great sin which plagues many of us. Pride is said to be at the root of all sin. It is through pride that we are led to believe that we are at the center of attention and that everything revolves around us. As church we are not able to work as individuals who carry our own plan, but instead we are called to come together as one in order to live out the Gospel of Christ.
In our Gospel we hear the call of the apostles and we are told that “they abandoned their nets and followed him.” We too must abandon this individualistic mentality which plagues us in order to enter into the fullness of faith. One of the reminders of the Second Vatican Council, though not new, was that we need to enter into prayer and from this prayer we are to enter into the world to bring the message of the Gospel.
Despite this notion we are so ready to respond, but so often fail to enter into the spirit of prayer first. Before all of our undertakings we should enter into prayer and from this prayer we should be animated to enter into the abundant harvest of the Lord. At one time I was heavily involved with the Legion of Mary. This association of the faithful meets each and every week and they first pray together. It is from this prayer that they are sent forth from the meeting in order to perform their work. One’s work can never be divorced from the spirit of prayer. If it were so it would not be about the Lord, but about us and our own desires.
The apostles are interesting fellows for they encountered Christ and responded to His call. In our Gospel they did not sit around and bicker among themselves concerning unimportant notions, but “abandoned their nets and followed him.” We know that from the unfolding of the Gospels that they each had their own issues, but despite these issues they were still able to respond to this call from the Lord and follow after Him.
Division is found each and every time that we fail to place our trust in the Lord. As Catholics we do not find our unity through the holding of hands at the Our Father, though nothing in our tradition says to do this, but in the Most Holy Eucharist. It is Christ who present with us in the Eucharist becomes our unity. In a matter of minutes we will have the opportunity to approach the Altar of God and commune with Him. To receive our Lord in Holy Communion is to accept the faith in it’s entirety. It is to abandon our pride and to acknowledge that everything is not about us and our own needs, but about the Lord.
The apostles “abandoned their nets and followed him” as we too are called to abandon all and follow after the Lord. Saint John XXIII was so wise in saying before he laid down at night: “It’s your Church, God, I’m going to bed!” Let our heart be humbled in the Lord’s presence this day and realize that there is only so much that we can do as an individual, but when we place our trust in the Lord and come together in the unity of faith there is nothing which is impossible for us to accomplish.
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