Mother Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, February 09, 2025, 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 Saint Luke’s Gospel. Last Sunday, we heard how Jeremiah received his own call to be a prophet. This Sunday is the turn of the prophet Isaiah. God reveals himself to Isaiah, who, after seeing the glory and holiness of God, realises 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 (Acts 9:3-9), 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.
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. Christ, a carpenter from Nazareth, teaches seasoned fishermen, like Peter and his companions, how to catch fish by casting their nets into the deep. Peter, overwhelmed by what happens when he obeys the Lord’s order to cast his net into the deep, realises, like Isaiah in the first reading, that he is nothing but a sinful man quite unworthy to stand in the Lord’s presence. During this Mass, let us recognise our unworthiness too and pray to the Lord to give us the grace to undertake our apostolate with courage and determination.
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!”
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. 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 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 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 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 witch doctor’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. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give us rest,” says the Lord (Mt 11:28). It is only in the Lord that we can find rest from our troubles, not in the homes of sorcerers and marabouts. Holy Spirit, guide and protect us as we march to the Father’s house. Amen.
Second Reading: 1 Cor. 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.
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 is a very serious matter that attacks the whole foundation of the faith. Given the great importance of this doctrine, Paul replies at length to his Corinthian converts, pointing first to the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection and how it necessarily connects 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 the very core of our faith as it is so clearly stated in our Catholic Creed: “he died, was buried and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures.” 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 were still alive when Paul talked about it (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 the empty tomb (Mt 28: 1ff) and the numerous appearances Christ made to his Apostles before ascending to heaven.
What does this passage mean to me as a Christian living in the city of Douala today? Saint Paul’s humility leaves a mark on 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 lips 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, also feels unworthy before the Lord, and asks him to go away from him because he is a sinful man. Many a time, I also feel unworthy of our Lord because I feel that my sins are so great that he can never forgive them?
When I come face-to-face with the reality of my shortcomings and failure, I feel devastated. Happily, our God is forgiving and merciful. 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, I might have persecuted Christ and his Church through my sins, but the love of God overcomes all our sins. Christ’s death on the cross took away all my guilt. Here I am, Lord. Despite my shortcomings, I stand ready to accomplish whatever mission you have for me. So Lord, send me. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. I call you friends, says the Lord, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. Alleluia.”
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.
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 the success 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, though. Christ has already been at Simon’s house, where 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 gently 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 when he gives him the firm instructions to ‘Feed my sheep’, ‘Tend my lambs’ (Jn 21:17).
Our Lord 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 recruit, Nathanael, who has been wondering if anything good can come out of Nazareth (Jn 1: 46), 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 know more about fishing than Jesus Christ, who is a carpenter by trade. That is why when he asks Peter to put out into the deep and 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 in him and is generously rewarded for it.
This miracle has a lesson for me as well. 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 one of our Lord’s Apostles. In the same way, our Lord calls each of us, wherever we are, whatever our profession, to be the bearer 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 potential. Let us obey him as he asks us to cast our nets into the deep, “Duc in altum,” as the Latin says, and he will reward us with his miracles. “Here I am, Lord. Send me! Amen.”
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