Martin Jumbam
Mother Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, February 7, 2016 as the fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “O come, let us worship God, and bow low before the God who made us, for he is the Lord our God. Amen.” The theme of this day’s Eucharist is the call. Isaiah receives his call in the first reading while the first Apostles of Christ receive theirs in the Gospel. Last Sunday, we heard how Jeremiah received his call to be a prophet. This Sunday we listen to the call of the prophet Isaiah. God reveals himself to Isaiah who, after seeing the glory and holiness of God, realizes his own unworthiness. Overwhelmed by the sight and goodness of God, Isaiah volunteers to fulfill the mission God has entrusted to him. He tells the Lord: “Here I am, send me!”
In the second reading from First Corinthians, Saint Paul, who received his own call in a dramatic way on the road to Damascus, now tackles one of several problems he has had with his converts of Corinth; the question of the resurrection of the body. This is a serious matter as it attacks the very foundation of the Christian faith, which is based on the fact that Christ died, rose from the dead and is alive. Paul tells them that Christ’s resurrection is an incontestable fact because their forerunners in the faith actually saw the risen Christ.
In the Gospel, Saint Luke shows Jesus who has just returned from a failed mission to his hometown of Nazareth receiving a warm welcome from the crowds in Capernaum. We are then introduced to the men who will help Christ spread his mission to the universe. He, a carpenter, teaches seasoned fishermen how to catch fish and Peter, overwhelmed by what happens when he obeys the Lord’s order to cast his net into the deep, realizes, like Isaiah in the first reading, that he is nothing but a sinful man quite unworthy to stand in the Lord’s presence. In the course of this Mass, let us pray for the grace of faith and obedience in our apostolate.
First Reading: Isaiah 6: 1-8.
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!”
- V/ The word of the Lord.
- R/ Thanks be to God
- Comment
- The prophet Isaiah is the first of the Major Prophets of the Bible, the second being Jeremiah, the third Ezekiel and the fourth Daniel. The prophet Isaiah is often considered the greatest of the prophets. He was born in about 765 BC of a Jerusalem aristocratic family. He received his prophetic vocation in 740 BC and his long ministry spanned a period of over forty years, a period dominated by the ever increasing threat to Israel and Judah by the Assyrians.
The Book of Isaiah covers three distinct periods of Israel’s history. The first part, chapters 1-39, was written by the prophet himself; the second and third parts were written by other prophets when the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon and after their return.
The passage of our meditation is the call of the prophet. The powerful vision which Isaiah had in the temple left a lasting mark on him and influenced all his teaching, much in the same way as Saint Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus marked him. For Isaiah, this vision was a revelation of God’s holiness and majestic power. By contrast, Isaiah becomes painfully aware of his human sinfulness, powerlessness and total dependence on God. Typically, visions of God in biblical history always raise feelings of fear in the seer. That is what happens to Jeremiah and now to Isaiah. We see the same feeling expressed by Peter in the Gospel of this day when he tells our Lord: ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man’ (Lk 5: 8).
Isaiah is cleansed and consoled as soon as he humbly acknowledges his unworthiness and insignificance before God (vv. 6-7). His initial sense of fear is quickly replaced by a generous and trusting response to God’s call: he is ready to do what God wants as he openly proclaims “Here I am! Send me” (v.8). The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2584, tells us that “In their ‘one to one’ encounters with God the prophets draw light and strength for their mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, but rather attentiveness to the Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint, but it is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Savior God, the Lord of history.”
What does this reading tell me as a Christian living in the city of Douala today? Isaiah puts all his trust in God’s wise and powerful hands. Only our God can be trusted to provide us with protection and help in times of need. This is definitely a powerful message to anyone living in the city of Douala where we, for the most part, tend to put our trust in human mediators: sorcerers, magicians, witch doctors, marabouts, etc. We are in Church in the morning but when we feel the least pain in body or mind, we head for the witchdoctor’s house in the back streets of our city. There we spend a fortune only to be told that our ailment is caused by a brother or a sister, an aunt or a grandmother. Then we rush back home in a murderous rage and pounce on poor relatives, who have nothing to do with our misfortunes. Why don’t we seek the Lord all of us who labor and are burdened and he will give us rest (Mt 11:28). Holy Spirit, guide and protect us as we march to the Father’s house. Amen.
Second Reading: First Corinthians 15:1-11.
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.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
One of the problems Paul has with his converts of Corinth is the question of the resurrection from the dead. This is a belief with which the Greeks are unfamiliar. For Paul, this was a very serious matter that attacks the whole foundation of the faith. Given the great importance of this doctrine, Paul replies at length, pointing first to the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection and how it necessarily connects up with the resurrection of the dead in general.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most essential doctrine of the Christian faith; without it, our faith is vain. It is clearly stated in our Catholic Creed and the primary role of the Apostles is to bear witness to Christ’s resurrection (Acts 1: 22; 2:32, etc). The proclamation of the resurrection of the Lord is the very core of our faith.
Saint Paul reminds the Corinthians that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures and was seen by many people, a statement that has passed directly into our Credo (Creed). .
The appearance of the risen Christ to many people is a direct proof of the historical fact of his resurrection. This was witnessed by many people some of whom are still alive (v.6). This event took place less than twenty years before Saint Paul wrote this passage. The Resurrection is therefore an objective, physical event as was witnessed by empty tomb (Mt 28: 1ff) and the numerous appearances he made to his Apostles before ascending to heaven.
What do I find so captivating about this passage? Saint Paul’s humility leaves a mark in me. He thinks of himself as unworthy of God’s grace because he once persecuted the Church of Christ. It is the same feeling that runs through the first reading from Isaiah, where the prophet thinks he is unworthy to stand before the Lord. The angel then touches his lip with hot coal and tells him: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven” (Is 6: 7). Saint Peter, in the Gospel of this day, always feels guilty before the Lord, asking him to go away from him because he is a sinful man.
Don’t we too sometimes feel unworthy of our Lord because we believe our sins are so great that he can never forgive them? When we come face-to-face with the reality of our own shortcomings and failure we feel totally devastated. Happily our God is a forgiving and merciful God. As the Psalmist says “But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Ps 86:14-16). So, like Saint Paul, we might have persecuted Christ and his Church, but the love of God overcomes all our sins. Christ’s death on the cross took away all our guilt. So let us rejoice because we have an all forgiving God. Amen.
Gospel: Luke 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.
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
Last Sunday, we saw how Jesus’ townspeople rejected his messianic message and threw him out of their town. They could not stand the idea that God was not exclusively for them, the Jews. Christ was telling them that God was just as generous to those outside the house of Israel as he was to those within. That message was too heavy for them to accept and so they threw him out of town. In this day’s Gospel, we see how Jesus returns to Capernaum and is enthusiastically received by the crowds, a hint of his mission to the whole world. The ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Mt 15: 24) have rejected him but the whole world welcomes his message.
However, for his mission to succeed, he needs helpers and today we see him starting to recruit them, men to whom he will give the assignment to “Go into the world and preach the gospel to the whole of creation” (Mt. 18: 19-20). He starts by selecting the leader of his team, who is none other than Simon Peter. This is not their first encounter as Christ has already been at Simon’s house, after leaving the synagogue. There he found Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. Luke tells us that ‘he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her’ (Lk 4:39). His choice of Simon’s boat for his first pulpit is therefore far from being a mere coincidence. He is beginning to gradually hew the rock on which he will build his Church. He gradually enters into Peter’s life as he prepares him for his decisive dedication as an Apostle. Not long from now, he will tell Simon ‘And I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it’ (Mt 16: 18). And just before he leaves the world, he re-confirms Peter’s position as the head of his church as he gives him the firm instructions to ‘Feed my sheep’ (Jn 21:17). He is gradually revealing to his small team of followers the signs of the wonders he will perform throughout his public ministry. As he will tell another new recruit, Nathanael, who has been wondering if anything good can come out of Nazareth (Jn 1: 46), that greater things still lay ahead of him (Jn 1: 50).
In today’s reading, Jesus meets Simon and his brother, Andrew, and their companions, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, by the lake as they are washing their nets after a fruitless night of fishing. Fishing is their trade and it is hard work. They definitely know more about fishing than Jesus Christ, who is a carpenter by trade. That is why when he asks Peter to drop his net for a catch, Peter is understandably surprised. As a fisherman, he knows that it is not the right moment to fish and that there is no fish where they are, close to the shore. But, out of faith in Christ, and having seen the miracle of the curing of his mother-in-law just a few days before, Peter simply obeys and trusts and is generously rewarded for it.
This miracle has a lesson for me. It shows me that I have to acknowledge, as Peter does, that I am a sinner and put my trust in the Lord and he will work wonders in my life. In the middle of his fishing activity, Peter is called to be our Lord’s Apostles. In the same way, our Lord calls each of us, wherever we are, whatever our profession, to be bearer’s of his message to the world. The Fathers of the Church say that ‘By means of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will’ (Lumen gentium, 31).
We sometimes feel like Peter and his companions that our luck is down but we must remember that Jesus is always there, present and ready to ask us to put out to the sea of our troubles and cast the net of his love and he will reward us abundantly. Like Peter, we too are sometimes too focused on our sinfulness and unworthiness, but Christ is asking you and me to stop focusing on our sense of worthlessness and see ourselves as his messengers to the world. He does not look at how sinful we are but rather rescues us from our sinfulness and makes us new creatures in God.
Let us therefore pray for the courage to be fishers of men and women for Christ’s kingdom, irrespective of our state in life. However sinful we may have been yesterday is of no consequence to Christ who wants us today to bear his Good News to our families and parish communities. We will succeed in our mission only if we rely more on Christ than on our own potential. Let us obey him as he asks us to cast our nets into the deep and he will reward us with his miracles. Amen.
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