5th Sunday In Ordinary Time – Year C
Is 6:1-2a, 3-8
In the year King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above.
They cried one to the other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory!”
At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook
and the house was filled with smoke.Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.He touched my mouth with it, and said,
“See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”
“Here I am,” I said; “send me!”
Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
(1c) In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth;
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD:
“Great is the glory of the LORD.”
In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
1 Cor 15:1-11 or 15:3-8, 11
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.
Lk 5:1-11
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening
to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply,
“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore,they left everything and followed him.
Here am I, send me.
This is the response God wants from all of us. This is the attitude of heart that Jesus seeks from us. How many times in the Gospels do we read that Jesus says to someone to give it all up and follow him? That is how it is done.
He is not seeking just a piece of our lives. Not just a Sunday morning mass, not just a meeting or two during the week, not just service to the Church in whatever large or small way that we are able. All of those things are a part of it, and without them we could not run a parish, or have charitable organizations or do any of the many, many good things that we do in the service of God through and for his Church. Those things require the help of everyone, and they are part of what our hearts tell us we must be doing, and rightly so. Jesus commands it.
Haven’t we seen over the past several weeks St. Paul the apostle pointing out to us that every one of us has a role in the Kingdom? Some are more obvious than others, some are frankly out of sight and often we don’t even think that they matter. If our part and contribution to the Kingdom is small and not very noticeable, it is easy for us to think that it is unimportant to Christ. That is what St. Paul has been reminding us, that every part of the body of Christ is important. We cannot all do the same things but each has a place, and one cannot say to the other that it is more important.
But we must never forget what it is that comes first. Let us pause here and focus on it. This is very important, vital to our salvation, to our very future in the Kingdom of God. All those things that we do will get us nowhere without this. What are we talking about? Let us look at this very carefully once more.
From Isaiah today we read that God made his presence known in the temple, and with him were the Seraphim, higher angels whose job it is to surround the throne of God and praise him. This was completely astonishing to Isaiah, and a miracle. That God would fill the temple with his presence, that heaven, as it were, would come right down there in the temple in a way that was unmistakable to Isaiah.
There are many lessons to learn from this. This first being that in the temple, the Holy of Holies, God did dwell among his people. They knew this and believed this, yet the high priests went in once a year and this was normal. They paid due reverence, as was proper and owing to God, but the presence of God to them was understood by faith, as St. Paul said, not by sight. But this time, God made his presence known to Isaiah in a very powerful way. This was no ordinary day.
The first lesson that we learn here is that God is in control of how he makes his presence known to us. It can happen even to us today. We may not have the same experience as Isaiah, yet if we are truly experiencing the presence of God, by his Holy Spirit, there is a sure sign that this is what is happening. Isaiah noticed right away how small, how insignificant and how sinful and unclean he was before God. How many people have had this same sort of experience, not just saints of the past, not just holy people that we know of, but ordinary folks like you and I who have experienced the Lord God through his Holy Spirit, getting our attention and making his presence known. We often refer to such things as a “conversion experience.” Why? Because the presence of God is so pure, so holy, so powerful, that we know immediately how sinful we are. His presence cuts through all of our self-delusions, all of the excuses we make for ourselves and we know ourselves at least partly, as we truly are. And this is only a glimpse of God. If he were to make himself truly known in all of his glory we would not survive the experience. It would be too much for us. No man has seen God and lived. Even Moses, on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments could not look at God directly.
Let us be perfectly clear. In a world that seeks out mystical and spiritual experiences and is all mixed up and doesn’t know who God really is, we can know that it is God when he makes his presence known. We will have an instant and overpowering sense of how sinful and unclean we are. If we are messing around with spiritual forces that seem to build us up and confirm us in our sin, that tell us that we are not so bad; that we don’t need to get concerned about the evil that we do; then make no mistake, it is not God’s presence we are experiencing. In the light and radiance of God’s purity, we know how sinful we really are, and quite frankly it is not pleasant to see ourselves that way.
And what was the response of Isaiah? Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. He knew he was not holy right away. He was afraid because he knew that such a sinful man as himself could not survive in the presence of God. It was not a matter of training, although he undoubtedly knew in his head as much as was known about God. It was instantaneous. He knew himself instantly.
What then was the solution for Isaiah? The seraphim took a hot coal and purged his lips with it. Why his lips? This is what guilt that came to Isaiah’s mind immediately. He is the one that said, I am a man of unclean lips. But in the symbolic and very real act of purging we see that Isaiah was purified of his sin before God. This could very well be a metaphor for purgatory, the place of purging that those of us will pass through who still have some of the stain of sin on us, who are saved but cannot enter the presence of God as we are.
And for Isaiah, this purging of his lips was also a sign of his vocation. He was to be a prophet and speak the words of God to the people. From then on his lips were sealed by God for God’s work, for God’s word. It is often in our moments of true penance, of self-knowledge of our own guilt, of recognition of our own sinfulness that we find the clues of our vocation. And that is not surprising when we think about it. God has a job for us to do, small or large, but it is first through repentance and capitulation before God that we will find it. How can we know God’s will for us when we are puffed up in our own importance, when we are living in self-delusion about our own piety? God waits for us to fall on our knees in repentance and sorrow for our sin, so that then, when we are ready, when we have given ourselves over to him completely, we can hear his call and say with Isaiah, “here am I, send me.”
From the Gospel today we read about the calling of St. Peter, as well as James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Have you ever wondered what would make such men just drop everything, their business, their livelihood and follow Jesus? We read that James and John were partners with Simon. They were running a fishing business together. And all at once they give it up?
They same thing happened to these men as happened to Isaiah. They were visited by the presence of God. Jesus performed a miracle right in front of their eyes and they knew, at least Simon recognized right away that Jesus was God. He was a fisherman by trade and he knew those waters. He knew it was no accident that where there were no fish to be caught beforehand, suddenly there was more than they could haul into the boat. Too many years on the water spending his time casting nets told him right away that this was a miracle.
Again, what was Simon’s response when God was made known to him? It was the same as Isaiah and the same as our response should be. He fell on his knees before Jesus recognizing that his own sinfulness. He knew that he was not fit for the presence of God and that here, indeed was the presence of God. And here again, like Isaiah, he received his vocation in the moment of humility and repentance before God. Jesus called him to follow and he dropped his fishing business just like that and followed. His action was suited to the words of Isaiah, “here am I, send me.” Jesus said follow me, and he followed, along with James and John, who perhaps recognized the divine presence with them, or perhaps were merely following Simon’s lead.
And there is a valuable lesson as well. Occasionally, we are called to follow the lead of someone else, in this case the first Pope of the Holy Catholic Church. Occasionally our faith is not fully formed but we go into action nevertheless, following the examples of others, and it is only later on we come to the realization that we are personally called to duty. It is only later that we experience the presence of God and in full realization of our sins and in repentance we confirm our vocation, or rather, God confirms us in our vocation.
How like that is our baptism and confirmation in the Church. As an infant we have no idea what faith is, yet we are baptized on the strength of the faith of our parents and godparents. For us, they are our leader, our Simon. Later as we learn more and learn to seek out God we find ourselves convicted of our own sin and come to him in repentance and sorrow. When we are able to do that, we are ready to be confirmed in the faith and strengthened in the Holy Spirit, renewing and locking down, as it were, that original grace of baptism, as God’s presence becomes very real to us.
But let us make no mistake. There is no salvation for us without first that repentance and sorrow before God for our own sinfulness. Until we see ourselves as unclean before God, and fall on our knees in sorrow, we cannot enter into heaven. Perhaps we will not experience something so dramatic as Isaiah or Simon. Thanks be to God that we have their example before us, and we may not have to be knocked to our knees to get it. Our Lord Jesus has given us such an abundance of riches in the Church and in the sacraments of the Church that we can come before God and give ourselves to him without having to find ourselves in grave sin, and in dire need of repentance. There is no need to ever be far from him in order to get down on our knees in recognition of who we are and to give ourselves over to him heart and soul. But either way, that is the way. We have to give up ourselves completely to him first to find our salvation and find our vocation. Perhaps for some of us, sad to say, because of our thick headedness or something, we need to fall away from him into sin to be able to re-awaken and come back in repentance.
His greatest gift to us is his presence here in the Eucharist. We can always come before him with docile hearts and he will be here. If we really discern the body and blood of Christ here in the blessed sacrament, we will be disposed to see ourselves as we really are. What a marvelous gift Jesus has given us that we can recognize, like Simon, the divine presence right before us and fall on our knees before him.
And he has given us the sacrament of confession for that very reason as well, so that we can come to him and confess our sinfulness before him and receive absolution from those sins, just as Isaiah was purified in the temple. Everything we need is right here for us. All that is required is that we recognize our sin, repent of it in sorrow and ask for forgiveness. Clearly, such repentance and sorrow requires that we have what is called a firm purpose of amendment. We learn when we are young that this is a condition of our absolution. What does that mean? Clearly, if we have every intention of doing the sin again we really have not repented of it and we are not truly sorry. We have not seen ourselves as sinful and unclean before God.
This is why priests will sometimes ask questions in the confessional, to try to determine if the penitent is truly repentant or not. He cannot read minds so occasionally he will try to clarify the state of heart and mind of the penitent. Priests have been known to refuse absolution where it is clear that the person fully intends to go back to the sin they are confessing. Even so, he may grant absolution without knowing those intentions, but that person has not received the sacrament if the conditions were not met. It may be possible to fool the priest, but not God. Why is it that in the Act of Contrition we say that we are sorry for having offended God? For the very same reason some like Simon and Isaiah fall on their knees and say “woe is me.” Because our sin is an offense before God more than anything else. We are unclean and unfit for his presence. And that is why we should never receive Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin. It is our soul that is in danger by such arrogance before God.
Before his experience in the temple Isaiah was just like we are so many times when we come into this place. We genuflect, we make the sign of the cross, we make all the gestures that signify that we know that it is Jesus truly present here in the Blessed Sacrament. Yet perhaps often we don’t really internalize that, we know with our heads but not our hearts. Sometimes it takes a minor miracle to bring it to our attention. What we must do is what the Church teaches us to do, and that is to take the time before the mass to meditate upon the sacred mystery of the real presence of Jesus in Blessed Sacrament. Only then can we be properly disposed to understand just where we stand before God.
If these Scriptures were not enough to make the point, the Church has also given us today the passage from St. Paul in which he reminds the Corinthian Church that what he taught them, the message of the gospel that he gave them is the same gospel as that taught by Cephas, (which is the Greek version of the Aramaic name that Jesus gave to Simon, Kepha, which in Aramaic means rock). There is much in the passage we could discuss but for our purpose here we go down to verse 9 where he says;
[9] For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
This is the attitude of the man that wrote much of the New Testament at the inspiration of God. He looked at himself with no illusions. Yes, he says, he works harder than the rest but still he remembers that it was the experience of God blinding him on the road to Damascus that caused him to repent and serve God. In the presence of the resurrected Christ he gave himself over to him in repentance and the grace of God purified him in baptism. And then he too, with Isaiah, was able to say; “here am I send me.”
Increasing in Him,
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Topics: Year C | 1 Comment »
January 24th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
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