Nevertheless, At Thy Word…
If there’s anything consistent about us unstable and vacillating human beings, it’s this—we always, no matter what, want what we want. We desire all manner of things, some of them perfectly legitimate. We want to be able to breathe, to eat and drink, to sleep, to love. Sometimes, though, these desires can take over and we might eat, drink or sleep to excess. Traps abound in life and we’re constantly having to be on guard against them. Let’s ask ourselves the question today, why do we have to be on guard? Why not just give in to our every desire, wish and whim?
I’m not going to bother you with the natural reasons that I might need to discuss with those who don’t have the faith. We who believe in God know very well why we can’t always do what we want. Last week we mentioned the Ten Commandments, but even if there were no Ten Commandments, our conscience would tell us that it is wrong to do certain things, things that we know would offend Almighty God. As Catholics, that’s all we need to know. The existence of God, the nature of God as all-good, the love of God for us, these are enough, or should be enough to prevent us from ever deliberately wanting to do anything that would offend him and deprive us of his good graces.
We find this laudable attitude in today’s Gospel in the person of St. Peter. He wants to go home. He’s had a bad night catching no fish, he’s in a bad mood, he’s tired, cranky and wants to go home and sleep. But then along comes this man who climbs onto his boat and starts teaching the people. And when he’s finished he turns to Peter and tells him to “launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” Peter objects, but then utters the words that show the true character of our first Pope: “Nevertheless,” he says, “at thy word I will let down the net.” He doesn’t yet know our Lord well enough to recognize his divinity. He doesn’t know this Man is the Son of the Most High God. But he still recognizes in him a Man who should be obeyed.
Temptation comes in many forms, but consistent in every temptation is the desire to do something contrary to the will of God. In other words, a temptation is the desire to place ourselves above God. We might not consciously think that we are doing this, but in reality, when we place our own will, our own sinful desires above the will of God, we are making ourselves our own God. Who in this life must I obey? Nobody. To whom must I be submissive. Only to myself and my own desires. Because I am God! And I worship me. You can see how, by defying God’s will, we are in fact breaking the first of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” By placing my own will above God’s I am making myself “God”; I am giving greater honor and love to myself than I give to the almighty and everlasting God who created me out of nothing.
When we become our own gods, we create a great upheaval in the order of things. That great hierarchy that God created, the universe with its stars and planets, our own world with its majestic mountains and mighty oceans, forests and plantlife, its array of animals, birds and fishes—all these things God created for the use of man. We may rightfully see ourselves above all these things. But when man no longer recognizes his place in creation, when he ceases to love and worship the Creator who gave us everything, when man places himself not only above all these things but above God himself, there is a violent rupture in God’s creation, a perversion of nature pleasing only to Satan and his rebellious demons.
I speak not of the sins of weakness so much here. We all fall to temptation to one extent or another every single day. But in this month of the Sacred Heart, when we should be contemplating the love God has for us, the devil has succeeded in turning the month of June into a celebration of our defiance of God’s laws. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” Not only does Satan want us to break God’s law, to place ourselves above our Maker, he wants us to take it to the next step. He wants us to take “Pride” in doing so. And so many people fall into this trap, either taking pride themselves in their perverted ways, or congratulating the other poor unfortunates who do so. Pride, as we know, goeth before a fall. We should shudder in horror at the ultimate fate of anyone who has placed himself above God by taking pride in offending him. For without repentance, they surely will fall.
St. Peter was not a proud man. He willingly submitted his own will to that of this stranger who told him to go back out on the lake and start fishing again. And when St. Peter received his reward, a great multitude of fishes so heavy that his nets broke, he did not take any credit for it himself. He wasn’t proud of being a great fisherman, he wasn’t even proud of his submission to the stranger’s command. His reaction was to fall down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” Even though he obeyed Christ’s word, he still knew he was nothing but a sinner.
Are we any better than St. Peter? Of course not, and we should never ever congratulate ourselves because we might have obeyed this or that commandment, or because we didn’t yield to a temptation. Even on a good day, we need to remember we’re made of dust and that we have displeased God in so many ways. In the words of the 50th Psalm, “I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me.” Once we start getting ideas that what we want is more important than what God wants, we are turning away from our path to heaven on to a very dark and dangerous path that leads only to destruction. Satan does not present himself as an evil monster, even though he is one. He doesn’t demand your adoration, your love, or your respect. No. He prefers to hide behind a charming, beguiling and attractive appearance. He tries to convince us that he wants nothing but the very best for us, he wants to give us everything we want. How nice. But as Catholics we know what he’s up to and we reject him and his wiles and deceits. We turn instead with humility to God, we tell him we’re sorry for having offended him in the past, and ask for his graces to keep us out of trouble in the future, firmly resolved never to put our own will before his.
This is the spirit of humility and repentance that is pleasing to God, this is how we show God we know our place, that he comes first and that we desire nothing more than to obey the First Commandment of having no other gods before him who is the One True God. God comes first because God is God. And we are not.