Riffing on the Name

A homily for the third Sunday in Ordinary Time

For the feast of Saint Gregory the Great, which is in September. The passage from Office of Readings, part of the Breviary, part of the liturgy of the hours, is really good. It’s something written by Saint Gregory, and he’s riffing on his name, Gregory, which means watchful. And he says he’s far from watchful. He’s busy in the monastery, he’s a Benedictine, and he finds himself gossiping all of a sudden and gossiping mean.

Or when he’s pope, he’s expecting, you know, the best food, the best. And he says, it’s just he finds he’s not watchful at all, and he’s got to be more watchful. That’s why he takes the name servant of the servants instead of Lord of Lords or anything. I think that same kind of riffing on the name is what’s happening in today’s gospel.

We have Jesus along the shores of the sea of Galilee, and he sees Simon and Andrew and says, come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. We think it’s just follow him and you’ll be evangelizing. But I think he’s riffing on the name Andrew. Andrew, like the word androgynous or, And it means just the man.

And so when he says, I will make you fishers of men, he’s actually saying, I will make you fishers of the man. He’s saying, I’m going to make you fishers of yourself. If you follow me, you’re going to catch yourself. You’re going to learn yourself. You’re going to be fully yourself. And I think Saint Teresa of Avila says this very well.

Jesus comes to her and she says, what’s the point of prayer? And he says, you will find yourself in me and you will find me in yourself. It’s just like journey. The more we know ourselves, we journey into ourselves. The more we learn Jesus, but the more we learn Jesus and His law and his ways and his commands and his gospel, the more we learn of ourselves.

It’s like a spiral of more. Find yourself in me. Find me in yourself. Find yourself in me. Find me in yourself. Higher and higher. We can think of it as closer and closer. Find yourself in me. Find me in yourself. Find yourself in me. Find yourself me in yourself. Till you’re one. You’re so close. That’s the mystical marriage.

So I think that’s what Jesus is offering. Simon and Andrew and James and John before they can become fishers of humanity. They’ve got to be fishers of themselves.