Mar
26
The resume of the first Pope
“Please pray for me Fr. Dat, I cannot find a job!” said a student who recently graduated from the university. He shared with me his struggle, explaining that now a days, one not only needs to have a good education but also some job experience on the resume in order to find a good job. In my prayers for the student, I also began to mediate on the resume of the very first Pope, who was handpicked by our Lord Jesus Christ when he walked on this earth. Do you know what would have been written on his resume?
The Resume of the first Pope
Name: Simon; nickname “Peter”
Education and Experience: Heavy labor fisherman (Mat 4:18)
Virtues: “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Lk 5:8)
Faith: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Mat 13:31)
Spiritual Depth: “Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings!” (Mat 16:23)
Prayer Life: “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?” (Mat 26:40)
Loyalty: “Amen, I say to you before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” (Mat 26:34); “I do not know the man [Jesus.]” (Mat 26:74)
It was this man with such a humanly terrible resume that Jesus called, renamed him Peter and chose him as the Rock upon which Christ builds his Church. It was to Peter that the Resurrected Christ said: “Feed my sheep!” and placed him as the first Pope of the Church. Why? Because, as Saint Paul said in 2 Cor 12:9, in human weakness, God’s grace shines ever more brightly.
Remember that at the end of his life, Peter heroically witnessed to Christ by dying upside down on the cross. From the moment of denying Jesus 3 times to his courageous martyrdom years later was an amazing story of God’s grace, transforming and molding Peter from a coward to saint, ready to die for Christ.
In my encounter with young people throughout the Archdiocese, I often run into men and women who might feel God’s call to the priestly and religious life; yet they push aside the prompting in their hearts because they feel a sense of “unworthiness.” They recognize on their life resume elements that they may not be too proud off: “I struggle with impurity,” “school is hard for me,” “I like girls/guys,” “I don’t pray too much,” “I get distracted in mass,” “I don’t know if I can live without a family.” To these responses, I say that when Jesus called Peter at the seashore, he did not expect Peter at the time to readily die upside down on the cross for Jesus. If that was the case, Peter would be the last person on earth to be invited by Christ. What Jesus saw in Peter was the willingness to let go of his net and to follow Christ; then the story of grace began to be written.
So for those who are discerning God’s call to priestly and religious life or the call to serve in some capacity in your parishes, remember that “God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called!” Despite our life resume, if we are ready to let go of our nets, our fears, our unworthiness, then we will see how the Masterful Creator, who formed the beautiful universe out of nothingness, begins to make wonders out of who we are as children of God.
Fr. Dat Hoang
Director
Office of Vocations