by Father Michael Panicali
At the late holy priest Msgr. Dino Zeni’s retirement Mass as pastor of St. Rosalia-Regina Pacis in 2010, my sister Therese Panicali, who sang the Mass, walked away with his words to the congregation that indelibly marked her, and that she has shared with me throughout my own priestly ministry: “I hope I have led you all closer to Christ … because nothing else really matters.”
In light of today’s Gospel, wherein Jesus calls the disciples Peter, Andrew, James, and John to himself to serve his ministry, we Christians remind ourselves that the call to be fishers of men extends to the entire body of the faithful. There is a tendency for us members of the clergy to zone in on ourselves as those fishermen, and rightfully so.
As Msgr. Zeni wisely expressed, we clergy fundamentally exist to lead souls to Christ. We must be sensitive to this with every gesture we make and every word we speak. We must be acutely and keenly aware that if the Spirit of God does not guide our actions, we can tragically and catastrophically turn souls away from God.
Yet, this call to be fishers of men is universal to each and every Christian. St John Chrysostom taught, “There is nothing colder than a Christian who does not seek to save others. Do not say, ‘It is impossible for me to influence others.’ If you are a Christian, it is impossible for this not to happen. If you say that a Christian cannot help others, you have insulted God and called him a liar. It is easier for the sun not to give warmth or shine than for the Christian not to shed his light.”
Whether we are in the supermarket, in the pews of church, teaching children in public school classrooms, marching for life in Washington, praying the rosary outside abortion clinics, or praying at a holiday table with nonbelievers, we Christians are influencing others. The persuasion is to think that our efforts are futile. In fact, the opposite is true. This broken world needs Christians now as it did in the earthly time of Christ, to be the light of the world, and the salt of the earth — to influence others when it does not seem apparent that any difference is being made. That is a grave deception.
I remind myself of the words of another great saint, St. Alphonsus Ligouri: “I love Jesus Christ, and that is why I am on fire with the desire to give him souls, first of all my own, and then an incalculable number of others.” Equally inspiring is the saint of the gutter, Mother Teresa of Kolcata, who heeded Christ’s words on the cross — “I thirst” — and went into the slums of Kolcata, and those the world over, to satiate Christ’s thirst for souls.
We must all be acutely aware that each of our actions bears fruit, though at times that fruit is not easily apparent. The powers of darkness of this world delight in Christians losing hope and becoming despondent. We have the ability to catch many souls for Christ in nets that may not seem to be overflowing at times, but unbeknownst to us, cannot contain the number of souls we can reach — if we persevere, do not give up, and know that nothing is done in vain.
Father Michael Panicali is the parochial vicar for St. Helen Church in Howard Beach.