Fr. Don Calloway is on my mind this weekend. He is a member of a religious order called the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. I’m going to tell you a short version of how he came to be a Catholic priest, but I encourage you to look up his story on YouTube. He tells a much longer version that is well worth seeing.
Don Calloway was born into a family that didn’t really practice any religion. By the time he was a teenager, he was living a life of extreme immorality. His father was in the military and at that time their family was stationed in Japan. Don got involved with the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, and became a drug runner for them. Because of this, at the age of 15, Don was deported from Japan by the government and sent back to the United States. He then bounced around from one drug rehabilitation center to another, failing out of two in Pennsylvania and then finally finding himself imprisoned in Louisiana for a time. Don’s life was spiraling down.
It was around this time that first his mother, then his father both converted to Catholicism. His mother met a Filipino woman who introduced her to the beauty of the Catholic Church: Jesus, Mary, the Pope, the Eucharist, the Sacraments. By the time Don got out of prison, both his parents were going to daily Mass. They tried to get him to come along, but he thought they were crazy. Then one night, Don experienced what he describes as a “divine 2 x 4.” He picked up a book about Mary at his parents’ house and began to read it. He couldn’t put it down and read the whole thing in one night. Don had never learned about Catholicism and his mind was blown by the power of Mary, the mother of God. He had never heard about her before. This began a significant period of change in Don’s life. He sought out a priest who began to teach him and encouraged him to go to Mass and sit in the back.
As he put it, during that time, he was being “romanced by God.” He was falling in love with Jesus, Mary and the Church. After all the craziness, Don was finding what would truly fulfill his heart. So he started going to Mass and encountered a whole group of Filipino women who taught him to pray the rosary and the stations of the cross, to be a devoted person. As he tells it, they started putting scapulars on him, red, blue, green, brown. These Filipino women, even though Don wasn’t even Catholic yet, started telling him he should be a priest. His response was, “I am a great sinner, I couldn’t be a priest!” But then he began praying and asking God to reveal His call for him, and he actually began to hear a call to the priesthood. Once again, he balked. He told God, “Are you talking to me? You know me. You know all the crazy things I’ve done. That’s going to take a lot of power to make me a priest.”
And God did just that. By His power, He drew Don to the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, and they took him in and gave him all of the education and formation he needed over a long period to help him finally be ordained on May 31, 2003. Praise God. It’s amazing to see what God’s power can accomplish in people when they finally cooperate with Him. Don and his parents had been far from the Church and Don had gone through a crazy period of deep sinfulness, but by His power, God called them to Himself. He wooed them and helped them to experience His amazing love and all of the gifts He has given the world: His Son, Jesus, the Blessed Mother, the Church, the Sacraments, and above all, the Eucharist.
The truth is, God’s power doesn’t depend on us. I’ll say that again. God’s power does not depend on us. In fact, if you look throughout the history of Christianity, you can see the same story played out over and over and over again. When God chose people, they all had the same reaction as Fr. Calloway: “Who, me? Are you sure about that?” But God didn’t need them to be powerful, influential, intelligent, or any of the other things the world says are necessary for success. He didn’t need them to be perfect. God just needed their trust, their ‘yes’ to His power within them.
Look at Simon’s reaction to the Lord in the Gospel today. First, he is very dismissive of Jesus’ suggestion to put out into deep water for a catch. I can just hear the skepticism in his voice as he says: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” Then, of course, Jesus does His thing and the nets are so full that they’re tearing and the ship is in danger of sinking. Peter is so panicked that he calls over some other future disciples, James and John, to help out. He falls at Jesus’ feet confessing his own unworthiness: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Then comes the decisive moment. Jesus calls Simon to follow him, to become a fisher of men. And Simon Peter leaves everything.
I wonder whether we have a similar attitude toward Jesus and His Church as Simon at the beginning of the Gospel reading today. We look around at all the problems in the world, we think of all of those who have fallen away from the Church and we think: what can I do in the face of all of this? Maybe your own children have walked away from Jesus and the Church and you don’t know what to do. But the Lord comes up to you and me and invites us to join His mission. He looks at you just like He looked at David, Moses, Simon, Saul, Augustine, and yes, even Don Calloway, and He says, “Follow me.”
Following Jesus means being a little crazy, but that is what this world needs. With all of the craziness surrounding us in this world, I choose the craziness of the Gospel any day of the week and twice on Sunday; can I get an amen? Think about the craziness of those wonderful Filipino women with their rosaries, scapulars, and novenas. Their prayers and actions helped encourage this man who was literally an ex-con to become a priest. Now Fr. Calloway spends his time serving the Church and promoting devotion to Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph. One of the videos of his conversion story on YouTube has 2 million views. Fr., Calloway made the crazy jump from a life of debauchery to a life of prayer and devotion. I’m sure it wasn’t easy, but it was certainly worth it. And it is bearing great fruit, fruit which I’m sure will long outlive Fr. Calloway. I’m convinced that nobody who makes that crazy decision to follow the Lord ever sees the full fruit of their cooperation with His plan.
Think about Simon again. Here is this nobody of a fisherman who was acutely aware of his own sin. When he died at the hands of Nero in 67 A.D., the Church was still in its infancy and under heavy persecution. Do you think St. Peter, in his wildest dreams, could’ve guessed how vast the Church would be today? Probably not. But he trusted in the Lord’s power in him, and kept on choosing to follow the Lord, repenting when he fell short, but never giving up, all the way till the end.
The question I pose is this: why not you? Why shouldn’t you also be a person who bears great fruit in your life through answering the Lord’s call to follow Him? Are you a nobody? A sinner? Great! The Lord has used so many of them and transformed them by His power. Listen to the words of St. Paul, that killer of Christians who encountered Jesus and made the crazy choice to follow Him. He says: “by the grace of God I am what I am.”
Why not you? Why can’t you be that crazy person who won’t stop talking about Jesus, Mary and the Church to your relatives, friends and co-workers? Why can’t you be that person who goes to daily Mass, who goes to Adoration? Why can’t you be that person who prays the rosary nonstop, who puts scapulars and miraculous medals on people, who invites unexpected people to come to Mass with you, who sends books to your fallen away kids about Jesus and Mary that could just be the book that changes the course of their lives? Why not you?
Jesus wants to renew the Church in our time and He wants to do it through His power in you, in me, in each of us. All those tools that were there for Simon to become Peter, for Saul to become Paul, for ex-con Don to become Fr. Don, are there for you, too! It’s really only one tool, with many different vessels: God’s grace. The Father loves you and me and has abundant grace to equip us, starting today, in spite of all of our flaws and failings, which He sees. You and I have access to Mary, the Eucharist, Reconciliation, Scripture, sacramentals, and the teaching of the Church! We even have something that Simon didn’t have! We have the example and powerful intercession of all of the many Saints in the history of the Church pulling for us, including St. Peter. They are praying for us right now! Their prayers and all of the beautiful treasures of grace in the Church plug us into the power of God that can do far more in each of us than we ask or imagine. Will you say ‘yes’? Will you be that crazy person? There are people who will come to Jesus and His Church through your ‘yes,’ through your following Simon in taking the risk of stepping out of the boat, leaving your comfort zone and all that is familiar, to follow Him. Why not you? Why not today?
+ Father, thank you for the superabundant grace you have given us in the Church to follow you and strive for holiness. Jesus, thank you for your call in each of our lives to follow you. Holy Spirit, please give us open and trusting hearts to soak in the grace that you give us to follow Jesus well and bring others to Him. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +