1st Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8
2nd Reading:1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Gospel: Luke 5:1-11
I have often heard some people saying that the best way to respond to the disappointments and failure that we all experience at times during our life is to use our energy and our qualities to help others. For a while I could not really comes to terms with such an attitude. it was difficult for me to comprehend the full significance. Today I am more inclined to see the relevance of such a statement and today’s readings confirms it.
This week I came across the story of Xinran, a lady from China who worked as a radio presenter. One day she went to a local hospital to interview people who were injured during a recent snowstorm. As she was walking through the children’s ward in the hospital she noticed that there was only one little girl there. She got intrigued and she asked about her. She was told that this little girl was admitted only recently. Her mother died during childbirth and her father who as a surgeon could not cope with this because he loved his wife a lot. So he committed suicide. This girl was brought to the hospital for the required attention and she was named Little Snow after the great snowflakes that had floated down outside on the day she was born.
The nurse said that no one from her parents family wanted her because she was a girl so she would be sent to an orphanage. This radio presenter wanted to take her home but she was told that she could not. She already had a son and she would not be allowed to adopt because China still has a policy that couples can only have one child.
This little girl was taken to an orphanage about two hours drive from where Xinran lived. It was very basic. Funds to keep the orphanage running were very scarce. Consequently the little children who were in the orphanage had to do with very little. Xinran asked her friends to help her to make the orphanage look better. Soon after the place looked much brighter and more conducive to the proper growth of the children. The rooms were painted in different colours, the heating was much improved and the children had many clothes donated to them.
However one day Xinran was told that the orphanage was going to be demolished to make way for a national highway. One day when Xinran came to visit she found the place totally deserted and all the children were given away to be adopted by foreigners. One can only imagine how the woman felt. She felt shattered. She really got attached to this little girl whom she met in hospital and to the other children living in the orphanage. Moreover after trying her best to gather around her a group of people to help the children live as much of a normal life as possible, she found that all her work, sacrifice and efforts going down the drain.
She did not give up. In 2004 after emigrating to England she set up a charity called “The Mother’s Bridge of Love” to help Chinese children living all over the world and for disabled children who languish forgotten in Chinese orphanages. According to statistics in 2007, the number of Chinese orphans adopted worldwide was 120,000 in 27 countries and almost all were girls. When asked where did she find the courage to embark on such an enterprise her reply was “I often thing of all those mothers who have lost their daughters. I often think about that little girl who I met so many years ago. I was so shattered that in spite of trying so hard, I could not make her part of my family. But this has given me the courage and the perseverance to help as many female orphans as I can”.
I am sure that many of us have felt so let down at times and with a sense of helplessness as Xinran did. How often we have felt that in spite of doing our best at the end of the day we have nothing to show for it. One might try so hard to enable a project to succeed to find out that not many others are interested with the result of having to abandon something that we believed in. One might have really put a lot of effort in to win a game yet the result was one of loss and defeat. I have often heard so many parents saying to me I have tried my best for my children. I educated them to the best of our abilities and provided them with ample opportunities for growth. However they have adopted ways of living and behaviour which are very much foreign to our values and principles.
What are we going to do in these situations as believers in Jesus Christ? It is very interesting to observe what Jesus replied to Peter’s sense of utter defeat “We have toiled all night and caught nothing”. Peter must have felt so disappointed at that moment. He was a professional fisherman. Fishing was his bread and butter yet after toiling hard for so long had nothing to show for it. He must have felt a failure. His pride surely took a severe beating.
What Jesus did was awesome. He did not blame Peter and his companions neither did he allow them to wallow in self-pity. He simply issued to them a bigger challenge. Follow me and instead of catching fish you will catch human beings. What a moment of transformation. When they heard this they simply got up and followed him. Jesus saw the great potential in Peter and the others. He saw that they had a big heart which with patience and with perseverance he could fashion and mould to make it like his own heart. Jesus was not put off by their apparent failure, but gave them the necessary impulse to continue to develop their qualities through a different and yet much more influential ministry.
The worst thing is not to fail. The worst thing is when we refuse to get up. This is where our faith is so life-changing. This is where it really matters whether a person believes or not. Jesus knows exactly who we are and what we go through. According to St Paul he has chosen us to belong to him (Eph1) and therefore he will constantly be walking with us enabling us to continue His mission. Always be on the look out for opportunities which come our way and let us run with them. Very often during times when we feel run down or hard done by we are going to be presented with opportunities which we never believed could ever come our way. Let us take them because God’s hand is in these. What seems to us to be very negative and hurtful experience very often prompts us to use the good gifts that we have to help others and this, in turn enables us to make a difference in the life of so many people who we encounter.
The list is endless. Childless couples who have shared their great love with so many children in need. Couples who have lost their only child and who have channelled their energy and faith in helping recently arrived migrants to settle in our country. Young people who after a time of great confusion and great disappointment decide to give some years to work with people who are destitute and needy. Professional people who decide to leave their lucrative positions to help others achieve and enjoy their dignity. Indeed the list is endless. God is with us. Turn to him. Talk to him about what is hurting and watch for the doors which will unexpectedly open. Go for it with him.
God Bless
