Sunday, February 7, 2010 Fr. Will Lowery

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

My brothers and sisters in Christ. Years ago a mother in Nashville, Tennessee gave birth prematurely to a tiny baby girl. And shortly afterwards the baby got pneumonia. And next the baby caught scarlet fever. And finally she contracted polio, one leg badly crippled and one foot twisted inward. When she reached age 5 she hobbled about on metal braces. When she reached age 11 she asked her little sister to stand watch at the door while she practiced walking without the braces. She didn’t want her parents to know. For one whole year she continued her secret walks and she finally told her doctor what she was doing. He couldn’t believe it. And afterwards he allowed her to do it for short periods, but her idea of short periods was far different from the doctor’s idea. To her periods of walking without braces she added periods of prayer. To make a long story short she finally threw away the braces.

This story, my brothers and sisters in Christ, fits beautifully I think with today’s gospel. It illustrates the point that perseverance is one of the greatest powers in the world. Peter and his friends had fished all night without success. Jesus persuaded them to try one more time and they did and it was the difference between success and failure.

It illustrates a further point. It is this, that when Jesus became involved with the process that’s when things changed and exceeded their wildest dreams.

With those two points in mind let us now return to the story of the girl in Nashville, Tennessee. Whatever happened to her? The girl began not only to walk without braces but even to run. And she ran and ran. At age 16 this incredible girl qualified for the Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. She won a bronze medal in women’s 400 meter relay. Four years later, in 1960, the Olympics in Rome, she was the first woman in history to win three gold medals in track and field. Her name was Wilma Rudolph. They had a ticker-tape parade for her, a private audience with President Kennedy at the time. An award naming her the nation’s top amateur athlete. So Wilma Rudolph is a living example to all of us of the power of perseverance. It’s a tribute to power and potential of the human spirit. No handicap is a match for perseverance and prayer.

Ray Kroc, the genius and driving force behind McDonald fast food empire put perseverance and persistence near the top of the ladder of human powers. He wrote, “Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance and persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than an unsuccessful individual with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are all powerful.” Then add the power of prayer and you have an unbeatable combination.

Today’s gospel invites all of us to do two things. First, to do what Peter and his friends did, persevere in our efforts in life. After recasting the net 20 or 30 times Peter could have given up but he recast the net one fine time and that spelled the difference between success and failure.

Secondly, to involve Jesus in all our efforts in life. It was then Jesus entered the picture that Peter and his friends succeeded. It was the same with Wilma Rudolph and it can also be the same for each and every one of us. Perseverance in effort and prayer with Jesus.

So we close with a prayer this morning. A prayer composed by someone who was a model of perseverance and prayer, St. Ignatius if Loyola, and it’s a prayer of gratitude. “Lord teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve. To give and not to count the cost. To fight and not to heed the wounds. To toil and not to seek for rest. To labor and not to ask for reward except to know that I am doing Your will.”