Why did God call us?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Last Sunday God called Jeremiah, and today He calls Isaiah! Clearly the Church, our loving Mother, wants us to reflect on God’s call to us! Isaiah describes a vision of grandeur and glory, a glimpse of God’s throne. Indeed, this is the very passage, the very verses, from which we take the opening words of the Sanctus, the Holy Holy Holy… with the angels, at every Mass, we too proclaim, “Holy Holy Holy is the LORD of Hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” Think of that… from about 700 years before Christ to the present, those words have been on the lips of God’s people!

When Isaiah beholds the Glory of God’s Throne, he is filled with fear and trembling! To behold God face to face was understood by the Jews as something that could destroy a person. God’s goodness and light it so far beyond our comprehension, so far beyond our own divided hearts and often darkened minds… brighter than the most powerful neutron bomb, a fire of love hotter than the core of the sun. So, Isaiah is overwhelmed, “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!”

What Isaiah perceives is true… before God’s perfect glory and beauty he IS a man unclean and unworthy! Can we take possession of this important insight? What we recognize in our heart of hearts, if we are honest with ourselves, is true… we have fallen short, we are in need of God’s mercy! We cannot presume to claim His love and mercy as something we have acquired or earned, for we have unclean lips and minds and hearts and hands.

But then, one of the seraphim flew to Isaiah with a burning ember that came from the altar, and the intense and glorious fire of God’s love touched Isaiah’s mouth, and the angel said, “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” In the midst of God’s glory, Isaiah recognizes his own iniquity, but then God sends His perfect grace and mercy by the hand of an angel, and that iniquity is burned away! Do you hear the echo here of the gift we too will receive upon our lips from this altar, a gift that will burn away falsehood in our hearts, the gift of the Lord’s Body and Blood!

I mentioned last weekend the way the First Reading and Gospel are chosen for us as a pair, do you see the connection? As the crowd presses in upon Jesus, He preached to them from Simon’s boat. Simon’s hears His authoritative word, and then when Jesus tells them to put out into the deep, they obey, even though they had fished all night. Their net is filled, and Simon Peter beholds the glory of God… Jesus has not only spoken the truth, but He has filled their nets, their hearts, their hands with His goodness, concretely here this miraculous catch of fish! As Simon Peter beholds God’s glory present before him, he responds just as Isaiah did… he becomes deeply and viscerally aware of his own inadequacy! He falls to his knees and says, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

Why did God call Isaiah? Why did He call Simon Peter? Why did He call me, or you? He did call us, otherwise we wouldn’t be here! But notice well, He did not call us because of our worthiness! If we look within our hearts, we see our own weakness, our sinfulness, the lukewarmness of our response to God’s amazing gifts to us. If we don’t see that, we need to open our eyes! But when we do see that, in honesty, we can very well ask the question, “Lord, why me? I’m a mess in some pretty significant ways!” And, like Peter, like Isaiah, we can even be tempted to say, “Lord, I am doomed, I am unclean, depart from me, find another worthy of your love, your call.” But as that naturally and authentically rises up in our hearts, there is a very fundamental mistake right at the heart of that impulse… GOD HAS NOT CALLED US BECAUSE OF OUR GOODNESS, BUT BECAUSE OF HIS GOODNESS!  This is not a statement of pessimism, or self-reproach, or false humility, but simply a statement of truth! Left to our own devices we would be overwhelmed by our faults and failures! Notice how St. Paul embraces this so humbly in our Second Reading:

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.

St. Paul gets it! By God’s grace we have been called, by God’s grace we are here, and His grace to us has not been ineffective! This recognition frees us to respond joyfully and generously, not out of any sense of having earned God’s grace but out of the peace-filled recognition that God offers us life and mercy and vocation out of His superabundant love!

This week with Ash Wednesday we will enter into the Holy Season of Lent: 40 days of preparation for the joy of Easter. This is a blessed and holy time, a time when Jesus offers to step into our boats in a new and deeper way. If we will keep Lent well, with generous hearts, God will deepen our sense of His call to us, He will reveal the path He calls us to walk, He will fill our nets with His abundant harvest. He will say to us, as He said to Peter, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.” He will say to us as He said to Isaiah, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” During this Year of Faith, in particular, the Church invites us to look within, and to listen to God’s call to us once again. Out of our baptism we are called, we are empowered, and blessed. With God’s help we can respond as Isaiah did, “Here I am, send me!”

+ A. M. D. G. +