Luke 5: 1- 11 2/ 6 / 2022 (As built, Amite #483)
A. Counted on…to count on somebody to finish what you started… to go the extra mile… do the extra step… to be counted on…
B. The year is about 1970… his name is Michael… Michael is a big city boy… Michael is Chicago boy… he likes the city of big shoulders… and he’ll tell you that he had a pretty good family… yeah his mom and dad had their struggles… but they dig good… he had a sister… and his dad was always pretty hard on him… and he’d always say Michael… your word is your bond… you tell somebody you’re going to do something… son you better do it… they got to be able to count on you… he said because man let me tell you… you could have ten Wall street attorneys write a contract… but at the end of the day son it’s between you and that other person…at the end of the day can they count on you… he said you know I go through high school… he said he’s a good athlete… kind of do pretty well… you know… and he said college… he said man I didn’t even know what I want to do… he says I’m thinking about college… I want to go to Missouri… he said you know I tell my dad I think I’m going to college… he said well I’ll tell you son… this is how it works… you’re giving me your word so I can count on it… he said I’ll tell you how it works… son you go to college… you finish… you don’t owe me nothing… you don’t make it… you come back… you’ve got to pay the debt… fair enough… he gets a bachelor’s arts degree… man when he gets through… he said man I couldn’t rub two pencils together… he said I’m starving to death… he said now… when you figure out this guy… oh man Lord do I pray they figure this one out… you’re going to say he was a doorman… yeah… and let me tell you… any hour of the day or night he needed work… he was there… opening doors… shaking hands… helping people… bringing their groceries up… he was the quintessential doorman… and then when he was needing more work… he became a flight attendant on Eastern Airlines… I’ve got to tell you… I pray you figure this guy out… because he would not fit in any of those categories… as a result of it man he’s trying to make ends meet… and then he gets a chance to act in a play… in Chicago called Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf… people start to see it… they start to recognize his talent… so then he gets a bit part in Days of our Lives… you know it’s true what they say about Las Angeles right the big city Hollywood… it’s like a rocket ship… you don’t know when it’s going to take off… you don’t know when it’s going to blow up… as a result man he says I do Days of our Lives… and then he says absolutely nothing… he said I am dead broke… he said I’m about to cash in my chips and all of a sudden he said I get a break… in a movie called shoot to kill… well… wow… it’s okay… the last two masses have been a bloodletting… it’s okay I got it… as a result of it he says I do the movie and the next one I get is in Platoon… wow… okay… he does Platoon then he does another movie called Sniper… he does the Big Chill… okay he dies at the end it really doesn’t matter y’all… last guy get the lights y’all have been a great crowd thank y’all for coming… he does the Big Chill okay finally Michael decides man… they interview him you know and he’s out of acting now he does little bit parts… they interview him and said what do you like to do Michael… he said I love to do two things… he said I really do enjoy acting but he said I love to read… he’s prolific… he just reads and reads… he said I love history… so I love to study it… and they said if you had two wishes what would they be… he said one I would like to be Jack Nicholson for a day… he said I just want to see the world through Jacks eyes… and then he said what’s your other gift… he said I want people to know that they could always count on me… he said I believe that was so important to me… he said the best movie that explains me… the best movie that explains me… is when I played in a movie… Major League as the catcher… for the Cleveland Indians… does anybody… anybody know Tom Berenger… okay that person and this person… that person over there y’all three are tax exempt the rest of you pay your taxes I can’t help you okay… wow… well when you look him up on google… okay…
C. That’s the Gospel for what it’s worth okay… my brothers in Christ it’s about whether you can be counted on… when the good Lord is in the boat… he’s in Peters boat… he’s on the Sea of Galilee… and Peter says Lord if you want me to throw out the nets… you command me… and you can count that it will happen… okay now stop you need to understand where this is going… lets go back… the guy that’s writing this is a guy named Luke… he is not an apostle… he is not a firsthand witness… but he’s a physician by trade… he’s big into details… and he’s making sure probably from the gospel of Mark… that everybody that writes in part of this… they know… he knows… that they have been there as a first hand witness… why is that important… because my brothers and sisters in Christ think about where they are at… they are on the Sea of Galilee… they’re in Peter’s boat… this is why they call the church Peters barque… as a matter of fact in the older churches… like St. Helena… the reason that our church ceiling is built like it is… like the inverted part of a hull of a ship… because it’s always Peter’s boat that he’s getting into… and did you notice that even though Peter was reluctant to throw out the nets… the good Lord knew he could count on him… because he walked away from everything… my brothers and sisters in Christ make no mistake about it… Peter was being a little indignant…and that’s why he dropped in the boat… and said depart from me Lord I am a sinful man… you notice the good Lord didn’t say… no please get back up it’s okay come on Peter you’re good… you screwed up… you got to repent for it… but Peter can be counted on to do it… that’s why he leaves everything… remember Peter’s married… his wife’s name we believe is Porphyria… and if she doesn’t buy into the argument that he’s going to be a fisher of men they go nowhere… so give her… her due as well… we do believe she was martyred in the same day… or the same week as Peter… we also believe the last words he spoke to his wife was go with God… that… is somebody you can count on…
D. My brothers and sisters in Christ go back in scripture… all of our best players… are people that know how to be counted on… you know what’s amazing I’m going to give you some names of people… that were devout towards Rome… I’m telling you… you could count on these people to do what they needed to do… and once they meet Christ… Christ could count on them to do what he asked them to do… regardless of Rome… go back… Saul… he is a Pharisee… a man of means… he is butchering Christians left and right… he has got everything that anybody could want… the day he is blinded and now he sees… you can count on Paul to travel all the way to Corinth… and proclaim the gospel… you can count on Paul to give his first homily and be stoned… you can count on Paul that even after he’s scourged two hundred times with a whip that at the end of the day he’s still going to proclaim the gospel… but you know what… he’s not the only one… man there’s a whole list of them… think about it… Longinus… you can say what you want about Pilate… but if he doesn’t have Longinus in his stable nothing gets done over there… that guy is the quintessential soldier and centurion… I’ll tell you how tradition holds him… they say that Longinus was such a good captain and leader… that whenever they would go on excursions whenever they would have to go out to fight… everybody wants to be in his foxhole… so much so… that when he said right everybody goes right… he says jump everybody says how high… this is why Pilate likes him… because he’s the guy that makes it happen… he has the respect of his troops… here’s the irony of irony…my brothers in Christ when he makes the proclamation… truly that man was the son of God… notwithstanding did he just now reign all over Rome and Pilate… within two weeks… he goes from being committed and counted on by Rome… to being totally committed to Christ… he flees the country … a year later… the same gentleman that helped him put Christ on the cross catches up with him… and according to tradition they dint recognize him… he came to a city looking for him because they were told by Pilate to bring his head back… and when they get there… find him… he actually is feeding them and they still don’t recognize him… and then he decided to tell them man I’m the one you’re looking for… and they had so much respect for him… they decided to just say look.. we’ll just say we never found you… he said oh no… he said I’m a follower of Jesus Christ… and if you came here to take my head then so be it… but I’m not going back and I’m not going to give you your due… my brothers in Christ they behead him right then…but yet the good Lord could count on him… you know the guy that gave up his tomb… Joseph of Arimathea…my brothers and sisters in Christ you know what that meant in Rome when you’re a Pharisee and you’re part of the Sadducees… man you… you can’t get out of town fast enough… Rome can count on you and then you give up your tomb… guess what my brothers and sisters in Christ… within weeks he’s got to leave… so would Nicodemus… he was a Pharisee… man he’s helping them take Christ down… here’s a guy that could quote scripture… now is taking down the one guy that they believe quote… probably was the anti-God… as a result they behead him within weeks…
E. My brothers and sisters in Christ here you and I sit two thousand years later… how well can I and the good Lord count on you… well let’s see… when you go to work… can those people at work count on you Simon… to do whatever it takes… regardless of your pay… regardless of the hour… no matter how many times I call you on my phone… in other words as if you’re the only one that has a cell number that everybody knows…well Simon that’s why they’ve been gin it to you… that’s why the good Lord allows it… so that you can receive the grace…therefore they can count on you to run the extra mile… to do the little bit extra… to handle what comes down the pipe even though it’s just not part of your day… my brothers and sisters in Christ can the good Lord count on you when your friend calls you… and you see the name show up on the phone… and you know you ain’t getting off that phone anytime soon and you’re going to miss dancing with the stars… it’s just gonna happen… man you’re going to take that phone call…and you’re going to sit… and you well know you’re going to end up in the same spot forty five minutes later from where you started… but you give them the ear because you can be counted on… Christ would ask you to do it… can he count on you to do it… so my question is my brothers and sister in Christ can the good Lord count on you… to make sure that when you’re with you family… to put your cell phones to the side… and not pick it up when you hear it ding… can he count on you to have a conversation with them… and that everything doesn’t sit around the television or the computer… can the good Lord count on you to just get off of Facebook for a little bit… can he count on you to stop watching the news… my brothers and sisters in Christ can the good Lord count on you and I to go to one more mass… a year then we did last year… can he count on you to go to confession at least once a month… when you get angry… mad…temperamental… you curse… I can tell you why it is… because you’ve grown so far away from him…man the devil could drive a truck through it… that’s why you need to go to confession… so you close the gap… can he count on you to go to confession… can he count on you when somebody says let us pray man you break out the sign of the cross so that everybody knows you’re catholic… man can he count on you to break out the hail Mary when you’re the one… you know ain’t nobody else praying that one… can he count on you when you tell somebody man I’m going to pray for you… that’s exactly what you’re going to do… don’t miss that one… don’t tell somebody you’re going to pray for them and then back up and forget the whole thing… can the good Lord count on you to be respectful to your parents… do to what they’ve asked you and do so in the manner… it is a commandment… it is the fourth one… my brothers and sisters in Christ can the good Lord count on you to be a better catholic this year then you were last year… you are never neutral to him… so you’re either walking this way towards him or away from him… email… text messages… conversation… driving your car…. visiting with people…everything you do… you’re never neutral… so my brothers in Christ what I want for you is… is that the good Lord can count on you… to be the good Catholic man and woman that you are… that you go to that one more mass … that you’ll actually try adoration… you’ll go to the sacraments… you’ll actually work at work because that’s what you do… because it is who you are… your word is your bond… what I want from you is just this… that when somebody asks the good Lord… what do you think of the people that came to mass today at St. Helena… what do you think of the people that listened and watched… he says I know you can count on them… because I do… and if he hears from them saying well I can’t count on them… I pray his response… is then you don’t know how to count…
F. Amen.
