Homily: January 13 - St. Hilary - Fisher of men

On this first weekday of the new season of Ordinary Time, we honor one of the great Fathers of the Church, St. Hilary, a bishop of the fourth century. 

As the Arian heresy spread rapidly through Europe, St. Hilary was devoted to defending the Catholic faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ.  He was ostracized by his brother bishops who accepted Arianism; he was even exiled from France to Turkey by the emperor for preaching the truth.  Yet, even from exile, he worked strenuously to bring the heretics back to the truth.  When he returned from exile, his people welcomed him back enthusiastically. 

Today in the Gospel, we heard Jesus tell Peter and Andrew, “I will make you fishers of men.”  St. Hilary and the great saints show us what the Lord meant.  That we, like the Saints, are to work to bring others to the truth, how to be faithful to the life to which Jesus calls us. 

We don’t have to be bishops to be fishers of men.  Blessed Mother Theresa drew others to Christ through her charity; as did our own patron, St. Angela, whose feast we celebrate in two weeks.  Yet, the saints show us that the Lord puts us in contact with people in order to draw them to the true faith.  St. Hilary did it through preaching, writing, debating, and suffering for his flock.  We might be sitting down with friends today and say, "you know, the priest at church today was talking about this very interesting saint, st. hilary..."

In the opening prayer, we asked, “O God, grant that we may rightly understand and truthfully profess the divinity of your Son, which the Bishop Saint Hilary taught with such constancy”.  Perhaps, so many of our own fellow Catholics are not coming to Church and are not involved in works of charity because they lack right understanding of the divinity of Christ.

John Paul II would often challenge young people: “ask yourselves if you truly believe that Jesus is Lord.”  Because if you truly believe this, that Jesus is God, and that he teaches with the authority of God, then you must change your life, your life must give witness to this truth.  We must have the courage to witness in some way to those we meet today that Jesus is Lord, that he is God, that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

We pray through the intercession of St. Hilary, that God may make us fishers of men, that we may work for a deepening of faith in Jesus Christ today and all days for the glory of God and salvation of souls.