God's Word for 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday 10 February 2013

5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Isaiah 6:1-8 Ps. 137: 1-5, 7-8, Rv. 1 1Cor 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11

Whom shall I send? Who will be my messenger? Here I am. Send me.

Before the angels I will bless you O Lord.

The grace that he gave me has not been fruitless.

Bringing their boats to the land, they left everything and followed him.

First reading

Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord of Hosts seated on a high throne; his train filled the sanctuary; above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings.

And they cried out to one another in this way,

‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.

His glory fills the whole earth.’

The foundations of the threshold shook with the voice of the one who cried out, and the Temple was filled with smoke. I said:

‘What a wretched state I am in! I am lost,

for I am a man of unclean lips

and I live among a people of unclean lips,

and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of Hosts.’

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. With this he touched my mouth and said:

‘See now, this has touched your lips,

your sin is taken away,

your iniquity is purged.’

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:

‘Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?’

I answered, ‘Here I am, send me.’

A fundamental truth is that of myself I am nothing. How can I stand before God? How can I lord it over others? The prophet is expressing this truth in figurative language. He has realised  his nothingness before God and further realises that he is full of imperfection and sin when compared with God. So are we all. Like the prophet we have to realise this. It is the first of the beatitudes: blessed are they who realise that they are spiritually poor, theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

We are not poor. We are in fact immensely rich. We need to realise this also. The prophet has done this. However, our riches come from the mercy and goodness of God who is love. He wants to share his divine glory with us. This is his message. Only those who have realised and experienced this message in their own lives, as did the prophet, are fit to go and tell others. They will tell it not with words so much, but by their very being.

Psalm

Psalm 137:1-5,7-8

Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.

I thank you, Lord, with all my heart:

you have heard the words of my mouth.

In the presence of the angels I will bless you.

I will adore before your holy temple.

Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.

I thank you for your faithfulness and love,

which excel all we ever knew of you.

On the day I called, you answered;

you increased the strength of my soul.

Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.

All earth’s kings shall thank you

when they hear the words of your mouth.

They shall sing of the Lord’s ways:

‘How great is the glory of the Lord!’

Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.

You stretch out your hand and save me,

your hand will do all things for me.

Your love, O Lord, is eternal,

discard not the work of your hands.

Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.

Second reading

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you – believing anything else will not lead to anything.

Well then, in the first place, I taught you what I had been taught myself, namely that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died; then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it.

I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they preach, and this is what you all believed.

That Jesus has risen is not simply a truth to believe. It is a truth to experience. St. Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and it changed his life. Likewise, we must meet Jesus. We do it by the gift of faith, which God has given us. It is through our prayer in which we actively believe in the presence of the Risen Lord that we can meet Jesus. We must do this daily.

Gospel Acclamation

Jn15:15

Alleluia, alleluia!

I call you friends, says the Lord,

because I have made known to you

everything I have learnt from my Father.

Alleluia!

Or

Mt4:19

Alleluia, alleluia!

Follow me, says the Lord,

and I will make you into fishers of men.

Alleluia!

____________________

Gospel

Luke 5:1-11

Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.

When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.

Can you dare?

If you join an organisation, you will have your times of duty. Then you should give of your best. When your time is over you can go home and you are free. Many think being a member of the Church is like that! Sunday is for God – ‘can’t you give one hour a week to God’, we hear it said – then, presumably, for the rest of the week you can do your own thing! It is a sad misunderstanding of our faith.

Simon and his companions ‘left everything and followed him’. Why? They had an overwhelming experience. They saw what Jesus had done and they were thunder-struck. They realised their unworthiness, their sinfulness but Jesus did not seem to be bothered about that. Like a magnet, he drew them to himself and they left everything and went with him.

It is not catechism we need, nor theology, nor even Bible studies, good as they are. What we need is to meet Jesus face to face. Jesus needs to come into your life as a real person. Until you have the experience of Jesus entering into your life as with Simon, you will continue to do your own thing, often with as much success as Simon and his companions had that night. Meeting Jesus will be a turning point in your life. You will never be the same again.

You will not pack up and go off to a new place necessarily. Following him does not mean going to another town or country.  You will stay where you are, continue to do the same work, be a member of the same community, wear the same clothes, eat the same food etc. However, you and your vision will have changed! You will not be the same person. You will be a new creation!

Jesus will be an intimate Guru and Master. Struck by him, you will long for him because you want to know him more and more. You will have a great desire to pray, to listen to his Word, and to live for him. You will not be satisfied until you have brought others to Jesus too.

How can you bring this about? YOU cannot, it is the work of grace in you, the work of the Holy Spirit. Then can you do nothing to receive it? You can do a good deal!

First can you answer with Isaiah, ‘Here I am? Send me’? Do you want to meet Jesus? Are you willing to take the risk? On the other hand, is it ‘one hour a week’ Christianity that you want? Why not then follow a retreat surrendering yourself to Jesus with the prayer: come Lord Jesus I want to hear your Word. Then the grace in you will not be fruitless.

Father, may I fall in love with Jesus and become a new person.