Dear friends in Christ, we just heard how St. Paul urged the believers in Corinth to hold on firmly to the teaching they received from him concerning Jesus. He said, he transmitted to them exactly the knowledge of Jesus he himself received. He let them understand that believing anything else would do them no good. This is the message for us today - holding on firmly to our faith in order to have a personal experience of God.

Now that we have come to know the love of God in His Son Jesus Christ, it will be fruitless for us to try to believe in other powers and think that they can save us on their own. We are earnestly entreated to hold firm to our faith by turning away from whatever hinders our trust in the power of God to save. In a sense, we are entreated to leave everything and follow Christ – the fear of what the future will be, the anxiety of making the wrong choices in life, the desire for greatness in the eyes of the world, economic power etc.

– we are to seek first the kingdom of God and all these would fall in place (cf. Mt. 6:33).

When Simon and his companions found in Jesus the one they could trust and relate with, they left everything and followed Him. Like Simon and his companions, we too have got to make a radical decision at one point or the other in our lives. We have to reach out to make a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we have experienced Jesus at a personal level, there will be nothing to separate us fro Him. At that point we will be able to say with Saint Paul, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rm 8:35). Dear friends when, like the prophet Isaiah in the first reading, we make a personal experience of the Lord, our wretchedness would be purged away.

Then the Spirit of the Lord whom we received from the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation will suddenly come alive afresh. Our fear and insecurity will be removed and our trust in the generosity of God will spur us on to do greater things for the glory of God and the good of our human family. When this happens, we shall hear the voice of God at every instance saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And since we would have been filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, our answer would be, “Here I am, Lord; send me.”

Dear friends, when we have made such a personal experience of the Lord, we would, like the first apostles, know that every aspect of life becomes a blessing only when we live our lives in the presence of the Lord. Like the apostles and the prophet Isaiah, we too are to have a personal encounter with the Lord. Unlike the apostles, we are not to put aside our tools and go preaching the gospel. We are to let our experience of God throw more light on whatever vocation we have been called to. And as St. Peter would say, “As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 4:10-11 RSV).

What then are we to leave aside and follow Jesus? Our old habits and attitudes that do not allow the grace of God to permeate our inmost being – these are to be cast off. They are like wretched fishnets that can no longer catch fish. Yet, let us realize that we cannot cast these off until we each reach out to make a personal experience of our God through the Scriptures and the Sacraments.