Grace is All Around
I went for a few days to New Jersey. The day I was coming back, I felt a little bit uneasy: my blood pressure was a little high, walking from security to my gate made my throat dry. I needed some water badly and my hand luggage was kept for no reason by security agents. I felt I had to get a bottle of
water, so I left to find a fountain. Not finding any but getting to where they sold water bottles, I rushed for a bottle, opened it right away and started drinking before paying. I then realized that I didn’t have my credit cards since they were still at the security place. I saw a colored man with an employee uniform
and called him. He hesitated a second and came to me. I explained my situation to him and asked him if he would have the kindness of paying for the water for me. He graciously accepted and explained why he first hesitated. He said:” I am a Muslim; you have a priest’s uniform. I was wondering why you were calling me. I just finished praying and now I understand. I said: “God sent you to me. God bless you.”
Grace is all around and is given to you if you pray and use it to stay in touch with the source of grace and use your quota wisely. In the first reading, Isaiah found himself there when the Lord needed him. Feeling unworthy, unprepared to be there, he acknowledged his unworthiness, and the Lord graciously cleansed him and sent him on a mission. Paul was persecuting, imprisoning, killing Jesus’ disciples. God had a plan and use for him. After he was baptized and confirmed, he became the great Apostle of the Gentiles and is on the same pedestal as Peter, the Apostle of the Jewish Christians.
We read about his vocation in the Gospel after he was touched by grace from the Son of Man. He had tried all night getting fish to bring home, feed his own and making some money but to no avail. He trusted the source of grace and made a last try. It was such a catch that they had to work very hard to get the nets out of the lake. But then, realizing that this man is the Messiah, the Son of God, he will not go
home but will follow him and get ready to catch men for the Father’s harvest.
Grace is all around us, graced people and gracious ones. Do we realize it, are we giving grace to God for that? How much are we trying to be gracious, to share our graces with those less fortunate? How careful are we to watch over God’s grace given us through the sufferings and death of Jesus?
Aren’t we abusing God’s Grace by not appreciating it, by wasting it, by not sharing it or even by thinking: well, I will get it back, the Lord is good. This is presumption! And what if the Lord would call you the night you let it go…?
No boasting either if you’re holding on. Let’s imitate St. Paul and say with him: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, by the grace of God that is with me.”