Our Lord sets before us, in all its sad reality, one of the most unfortunate dangers that threatens people who try to serve God, namely, a discrepancy between their actions and their words. These souls may have received the divine mission of being light and leaven among their companions. Yet their light and strength is a false glitter. It neither sets aflame nor transforms others, because it is used up in mere fireworks, in words divorced from deeds. St John Chrysostom asks: ‘Is there anything sadder than a teacher whose only hope for his pupils is to tell them, "Do as I say, don't do as I do?"’
We all then, must work and direct our life with a sense of responsibility for our choices. We need not leave the place in life where the Lord's call found us. We must turn our whole life into service done to God: both our work and our rest, our sorrow as well as our joy. We ought to turn everything into an instrument of sanctification and apostolate. Each of us must exercise our own personal responsibility.
We make this a reality when we work intensely, day after day, shoulder to shoulder with our peers in the place where our Lord has put us. St. Josemaría has told us that “we are not doing our Lord a favor when we subject ourselves to fixed times of work or toil, just like other people, for long hours, over a period of years or always."
To help you grow in a sense of responsibility towards your own life, these Three Points you might like to consider in your prayer: God, yourself, and the others.
GOD: Consider what you could do for Christ, the gift of yourself to Him.
YOURSELF: Consider how much joy into your life there is, when you are doing what God wants from you. How much light along the road you could have, how much assurance in your heart that you are going in the right direction.
THE OTHERS: Consider how much ignorance and corruption is there, how much they need you, how much you could contribute to the others, if you walk in the right direction, helping them to get out of that mess.
But did each apostle cast his own private net?
No! They – all – cast THE NET from the boat; and they caught plenty of fish.
But why did the Lord Jesus command His disciples to throw their net on the ‘right’ side of the ship? Why not the left side? –To teach them to obey. To show them that their power would come from His Word, not from their ability. If they relied on Him, they would catch multitudes of souls, a number they could not even begin to fathom, and they would bring those souls to Him.
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