Why not me - Why not YOU!…..It all comes down to our will…Its not about your resume…Resumes are a dime a dozen and a subway token gets you to the Bronx - On a good day!…“Put out into deep water” and Dare to be great!

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first reading something I believe to be very encouraging…..”Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.”…..In our hyper competitive resume driven world this sentence is a complete and utter contradiction................... ”uneducated” - ”ordinary men”…......These are the people God chose to baptize and bring the message of salvation into the entire world….A herculean task….An he used ”uneducated” - ”ordinary men”!……..I will speak for myself, if I was tasked with what was asked by God, that is not who I would have chosen……But God uses such men so the world can see clearly that it was his hand, not the men who accomplished the desired outcome…Time and time again you see this pattern in Holy Scripture…God choses the “ordinary”……Speaking for myself, this gives me great consolation because I am as ordinary as it comes…..Each of us were born for something more….We all far too often measure our worth by the standards of the world…Where people are literally “bought and sold” in the market place of labor……In the eyes of God, these measures mean very little…..God sees in each soul what he or see is capable of accomplishing - If we only trust him….If we were only willing to “go into the deep”….There lies our greatness…Yes - GREATNESS…..Even the “ordinary” are called to be great.

“Open to me the gates of justice; I will enter them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the just shall enter it. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me and have been my savior.”

Tomorrow is Divine Mercy Sunday….This feast day on the universal Catholic calendar was born from the diary of a 20th century Polish nun with a fourth grade education….Sister Faustina Kowalska was a mystic who heard the literal voice of Jesus Christ and wrote what he told her in her diary….What she wrote inspired a Pope to create a Feast Day and the Divine Mercy devotion spread throughout the entire world…..All from a woman with a fourth grade education!……Once again, God uses the ordinary to do the extraordinary….Have you ever thought to yourself, what God could do through you?…If you surrendered your will to him - If you trusted him radically……..Time and time again in the lives of the saints we see ordinary people do extraordinary things….What keeps us from being one those people?….Why not us?…….Its all about our will…..Our will gets in the way - We must learn to “bend it” until it breaks!….Our greatness is not found on our resume - Its found in our willingness to allow God to work in and through us….Do we really believe God is real?….Do we really believe in what he says?……Step back for one minute and think about how an uneducated carpenter, who taught in a far corner of the world for just three years could possibly have created a Church that has last for 2000 years touching billions upon billons of lives…..Think about who this carpenter picked to be his first priests and bishops….How is all that possible!!!!…It’s possible because God is real…And everything he said is true….So the question today for us to ponder - Knowing what I just wrote - What are we going to do about it!……If we only saw what God can do through us!…Once again, ordinary people…Our head would spin off our neck!…Dare to be great!

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior. The joyful shout of victory in the tents of the just”

Today at Mass we are reminded that God does not see the world as we do…God sees the human heart…He sees our potential…..If only we had faith…If only we trusted in his words to us!……God cannot be put in a “box”….God has no limits…..That means God can do more with your life than you can….No matter who you are…..Please pray about what I just wrote…And ask your self - Why not me - Why not YOU!…..It all comes down to our will…Its not about your resume…Resumes are a dime a dozen and a subway token gets you to the Bronx - On a good day!…“Put out into deep water” and Dare to be great!