Fear not, nothing is impossible …

In our tumultuous times, we are experiencing the so-called “unprecedented” changes in our world. It seems that the world was like a sleeping giant; we did not want to heed the warnings coming from the scientific world, we shunned the words of poets and other writers; we refused to change our habits that are destructive to creation, our habits that contributed to our building comfortable cocoons insular to the “outer world”. The COVID pandemic shook us out of our complacency; as time goes on, many keep longing for the “normal” of the past. Time does not go back. Just as the People of God, who on their return from their exile in Babylon, have to face the painful fact that their Temple had been destroyed. They were challenged to remain faithful to the covenant of God and His People. “Choose life, not death…”

This Sunday the Word of God takes us to the presence of the glory and power of God – a place where humanity falls on its knees acknowledging its “smallness” before its Creator God. By the grace of God (the live coal) the prophet experiences love and forgiveness and finds the courage to say “Here am I” in response to the question of the Lord, “Whom shall I send?” Paul’s experience of forgiveness and courage is expressed as he calls himself the “least of the Apostles” who “persecuted the Church of God” and recognizes that “by the grace of God, “I am who I am”… He is called to proclaim to the Gentiles the “Christ who died for our sins… was buried and rose again on the third day.” He acknowledges that he gave the best of himself to spread the Good News. Nothing is impossible with the grace of God.

The final reading takes us from the glory of the “throne of God” to the darkness of the sea at night where the fisherman had toiled without catching anything. Jesus’ invitation to “Cast into the deep and let down your nets for a catch…” calls upon the disciple to trust Jesus’ word. “If you say so, Lord.” Peter is amazed and falls on his knees as he experienced his “smallness” before the generosity of God.  Nothing is impossible for God. Today, humanity is called to fall on its knees as our world is teetering before the great chasm created by our negligence in the care of the earth… the great chasm created by institutions of all kinds which have put first power and greed, and have forgotten our kinship as brothers and sisters. “Who is my brother, who is my sister?’

Pope Francis, like prophets of old, wants to shake us out of our “slumber” and invites us and the whole world to take each other’s hand and walk together in the path of healing and reconciliation. We are called to trust in God’s presence as we walk in the land of the living. We know that we are called to go into a world we have not known; we know that by the grace of our merciful and compassionate Creator we can contribute to the building of new earth and a new heaven. “Take up your cross and follow me… do not fear. I have conquered sin and death… You are One in Me as I am one with my Father.” Nothing is impossible…

By Margot Lavoie