No matter who you are…No matter how gifted you may be…God can do more with your life then you can

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St John a conversation between St Peter and Jesus…I love the character of St Peter…He is so human….”Simon Peter said to him, "Master, where are you going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later." Peter said to him, "Master, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times”…… One can say to themselves, why would Jesus pick such a man to be the first Pope?…Someone who was uneducated, who spoke without thinking a lot and denied Jesus three times when he needed him the most…Why would God pick such a man?…Two reasons come to mind…Peter had heart and Peter was humble….These are the kind of people God can use….We live in a hyper-completive world, which values many things that God does not value…God sees the human heart…He sees us in a way the world does not see us…He sees what we are capable of…Within the human soul there are what St Teresa of Avila called “caverns”…Deep pockets which only God can see…We do not even know they exist…But they are very clear to God….Within those “caverns” rests our potential….This is why we must trust God to shape us…If we do - If we give God free rein over our life…God will lead us into the “caverns of our soul” and its there that we will do things we could never have believed possible…This is what happened with St Peter, who was just a humble uneducated fisherman…But God did not see him that way…Peter had heart and Peter surrendered himself fully to the will of God…With all his mistakes and all his flaws, look what God was able to do with this simple man!…Do you somehow think you are any different?…The possibilities are endless…. If only we surrender

“For you are my hope, O LORD; my trust, O God, from my youth. On you I depend from birth; from my mother's womb you are my strength.”

I grew up in a working class family….I have an average intellect but worked hard……One can say I was an “over-achiever”….But when you come right down to it…I am a very “common person” who comes from common Southern Italian stock….I say that because I look back at my life and can not believe where God has taken me…..All because I said YES…Many people reading this are FAR more gifted then me…I say that because it is simply true….On one of my trips to India, Mother Teresa’s sisters connected me with a priest who served some very poor tribal people who came into Kolkata from the country side. My parish priest from New Jersey was financing them and I was visiting their Church one given day by motorcycle………As I was riding across a bridge on the back of a motorcycle in the heart of India, for a moment I said to myself………”How did this happen - How am I here doing this?”…It was almost like looking at myself through the lens of a dream - How could this possibly be me!?!……But it was very real and it was me…Why do I bring this up?…Are you any different than me?….In many ways, I would bet you are infinitely more gifted than me…Smarter, stronger, have more resources, etc…Just think what God can do with you?…It all comes down to a YES….Give your consent to God!….Fr Raniero Cantalamessa is the current preacher to the papal household in Rome…He is a very famous man….Before he was asked to do that job, he was a professor in Rome…His life was very good…One day he had a dream that he was on the back of a chariot and he had the reins of the horses in his hands and Jesus was standing next to him…But as he was standing there with Jesus next to him, he would not “turn over the reins” of the horses to him…The dream was implying to Fr Raniero that he was completely in control of his life - Even though he was a priest - He had not surrender his will……..This reality bothered him.....So the very next day, he resigned from his job and goes into St Peter’s square…..No one was in the square and he starts screaming at the top of his lungs below the papal apartment of Pope John Paul II…”Courage Holy Father - Courage”…Believe it or not…As irony would have it - The Pope heard him and was like…..”Who is this mad man?”…And when he heard it was the famous professor Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, who just resigned from a very prestigious job and is now screaming like a crazy person - ”Courage Holy Father - Courage”…The Pope said, “This is the man who needs to be the preacher to the papal household”…That is a true story…And Fr Raniero has this job to this very day……What am I trying to communicate to you?…….We must surrender…God is looking for people with heart…These are the people God can use…Do you have heart?…I bet you do!

“My mouth shall declare your justice, day by day your salvation. O God, you have taught me from my youth, and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds”

Today at Mass we are told about how St Peter makes a bold claim..Only to fail…But that was not the end of the story…Peter asked the Lord for forgiveness and then came back stronger than ever…Peter did not have “the best resume” but St Peter had heart!…This is why God choose him to be the first Pope…What about you?….Within each of us, there is unseen potential…God sees this even if you may not….The only thing standing in the way of us realizing that potential, is our reluctance to “turn over the reins” of our life to God….No matter who you are…No matter how gifted you may be…God can do more with your life then you can