In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.

Do you know the movie Babe? You know, the one about that amazing sheep dog pig? "That'll do, pig."

I was thinking about a small part of that movie about the dollhouse. Mr. Hoggett, the owner of Babe the pig, is quietly, patiently building over the course of much of the story, building this dollhouse, finishing it, painting it by hand, giving this loving attention to it in all these quiet moments as all sorts of other exciting things are going on. And at last, he's finished the dollhouse—beautiful and ready for his granddaughter on Christmas morning.

And that morning, the granddaughter tears open all the wrapping paper on this big dollhouse and immediately starts screaming, saying, "I wanted the one on television."

This is what is coming to mind when I hear the words from the epistle today: "I plead with you that you not receive the grace of God in vain."

You see, God has been preparing a gift for you, this gift of grace with his own hands, just for you, because he knows you from your mother's womb and the most secret parts. And knowing you, he has this gift to offer you today. And it's only for today.

That is what we have—not being bound up in memories of what happened yesterday, regrets and imaginations and maybe wistful nostalgia, perhaps, or the opposite. Nor are we going to accomplish anything good by being consumed with anxieties and fantasies and wishfulness about what will happen tomorrow. All we have is today.

And so we hear in the epistle a word of scripture that Paul repeats to the Corinthians, saying, "Behold, today is the day of salvation. Today is the acceptable time."

And what we find is that so very often in this day that we've been given, our hearts are not ready. And we scream like that little girl: "I wanted the one on television."

We imagine that the reason that I'm not satisfied, that things aren't working out, is circumstances. If only this or that would change. If only other people around me would do things differently, would see things more my way, would cooperate. If only, then everything would be okay. If I just had that thing I see on television, then my life would work. And it's all a fantasy. It's all just a smoke screen that is keeping us from really meeting the day that the Lord has given us.

And so we have this opportunity, this invitation to do things in this whole new way—to receive the gift that God has offered to us for this day, the day of salvation, the acceptable time.

And more than this, God also is inviting and calling you to make of your life a gift of grace to those around you, prepared lovingly with your own hands, patiently and carefully with the help of the Father, but made of the stuff of your own real life and offered freely to your neighbors in love with no strings attached, giving them the chance to open it up on Christmas morning and hate it—because it's a gift. It's theirs to embrace or reject.

That's not our problem. Our work is the offering. Our work is making ourselves into gifts of grace, vessels of grace in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

And if we're willing to do this, brothers and sisters, then some will have the chance to receive that amazing gift of God that we know something about in our own lives.

In the Gospel today, we hear of how Jesus calls the first disciples, those who've been fishing all night long. And then they come to have this amazing catch of fish. And we hear how he tells them, "Do not be afraid. Now I will make you fishers of men."

And brothers and sisters, we are called upon to follow the same path—to let down the nets even though we are sure that we will catch nothing, because you know we did it all night long and nothing good came of it. Then to take St. Peter's word as our own, saying, "I don't believe that any good will come of it, but I trust you, Lord. I will do it according to your will and see what happens." Because we know for sure that if we close our hearts, if we simply turn away, then for certain no good thing will come to us. We will receive no unknown gift, something unexpected that we did not imagine was possible.

And so we are called upon to reach out again, to make that fresh effort today. And it's hard work. It is hard work, as the apostle Paul says, that the work of the apostles is one that is commended by patience, by needs, by sufferings, by distresses. If the Lord went to the cross for us, then we do not need to fear our own trials as they come to us.

And St. Paul adds that this message is commended by purity, by knowledge, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, and the armor of righteousness. We don't do this work alone, but putting ourselves again and again and again into the hands of that great craftsman, God, who is laboring over us, perfecting us, making us exactly what he has known we would be all along.

There is no cheap shortcut to grace. There is no easy way out. We have to allow ourselves to open up entirely to what it is that God works in us, to fill our hearts up and to allow our hearts to be completely transformed so that our heavenly Father, even through us sinners, can make it possible for all to receive the gift of his grace.

Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ.