For decades weightlifters believed there was a limit to how much a person could lift.

In the popular category called 'clean and jerk' no one thought that 500 pounds could ever be lifted. Then one day a Soviet weightlifter named Vasily Alekseyev did just that. The curious thing is that, before the year ended 6 other people did the same thing.

Something similar happened when medical student Roger Banister ran the very first 4 minute mile. No one had ever been able to run that fast, but once he did it, a sub-four minute mile became commonplace.

What do these two events do but show us the artificial nature of limits and open the floodgates of human freedom and possibility - something we see Jesus doing for us this Sunday.

Imagine that you and I are one of those early followers of Jesus, sitting on the side of a hill in Capernaum. It's the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount we heard last Sunday when Jesus called the meek, the mourning, and the poor 'beloved of God.'

And now he's calling them God's light, God's salt - God's chosen vessels of guidance, comfort, even seasoning in the world. Like Alekseyev and Bannister, their best is being pulled out of them, as their eyes are being opened to the limitless possibilities before then.

This is good news - that we are capable of doing and being much more than we think.  Barriers can be broken, preconceptions can be shattered, yes, limits are really limitless.

Jesus is inviting us to live this kind of life - to live not with fear, but with curiosity - to see what our bodies, minds, and souls can do, especially when we really don't know how much we can accomplish if we don't create a limit. Nulla impossibla per dio - With God, all things are possible.