HOMILIES

Dear Audience,
For better understanding of the spiritual message behind this homily I kindly remind you to first read and contemplate the biblical texts before reading or listening to my preaching - a human reflection on the Word of God!

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

Feb 9, 2025

165

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First Reading

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (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!"

(P) The word of the Lord.
(R) Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms of David (138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8)

(R) In the sight of the angels I will sing your praise, 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. (R)

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. (R)

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." (R)

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. (R)

Second Reading

A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the 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, he 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.

(P) The word of the Lord.
(R) Thanks be to God.

Gospel

A reading from the holy Gospel according to 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 they 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.

(P) The Gospel of the Lord.
(R) Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily

The Bible recounts the experiences of many individuals who sensed that, despite their sinfulness and unworthiness, God summoned them to some form of special and unique services in this world. Today's readings present us with three such people: the Prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament, and the apostles Peter and Paul in the New Testament. In the first reading Isaiah recalls that one day when he went to the Temple to worship, he had a vision of God sitting on a majestic throne and angelic beings, known as the "Seraphim" surrounding the throne and calling out "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts! All the earth is filled with His glory.", Isaiah (6:1-8). Their voices were so loud and strong that they "shook the foundations of the Temple and the entire building was filled with smoke", Isaiah (6:4).

The sense of God's holiness and glory was so profound that Isaiah cried out - not in joy, but in awe, fear, and even despair: "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips", Isaiah (6:5). We do not know what Isaiah meant by "unclean lips". But biblically it could have been anything like using one's words to harm others, or lying and tainting someone's reputation, or gossiping and revealing a secret that someone has entrusted to him; or doing evil in God's name etc. Whatever be the sin Isaiah was referring to, he acknowledged that while he was in God's presence he became aware of his own sinfulness and that of his own people, and that God in His great mercy sent an angel with a burning coal to touch his lips, thereby taking away all of his impurities, Isaiah (6:6-7). At this point, Isaiah heard God asking him who He should send to bring His message of repentance to the people. Now, purified by God's grace, Isaiah confidently and eagerly offered himself to serve the Lord and to deliver the truth to the people, Isaiah (6:8).

In the second reading, 1 Corithians (15:1-11), the apostle Paul, like Isaiah, declares his unworthiness. Prior to his conversion, Paul had been a zealous Jew who violently persecuted the followers of Jesus and was trying to destroy the early church. Yet, the grace of God that bid him to come to believe in Christ called him to go and preach for Christ, especially to defend the resurrection of Christ and its importance to their faith in Christ. On hearing that some Corithians were denying the reality of the resurrection of the dead, 1 Corinthians (15:12), while believing in a resurrected Jesus, apparently because of their inability to understand how any kind of bodily existence was possible after death, 1 Corinthians (15:35). Paul wrote to them to remind them of the essence of the "gospel", a gospel not his own but drawn from tradition and eyewitnesses. The gospel is that "Jesus died, was buried, was raised and appeared in accordance with the scriptures", 1 Corinthians (15:1-4), and in His resurrection is our resurrection.

It means that Jesus conquered death, not only for Himself, but for all of us who put our faith Him. Paul then recounted the various appearances of Jesus after His resurrection. He said, "the resurrected Jesus had appeared to Cephas, then the 12 apostles and many other individuals, and finally he appeared to me who was born abnormally", 1 Corinthians (15:5-8). By referring to himself as "one born abnormally" Paul compared himself to a child born prematurely. He was basically saying that the risen Christ appeared to him when he was as good as spiritually dead, thereby humbly admitting his unworthiness to be an apostle for Christ. Having recognized his unworthiness, Paul believed that his calling to be apostle was God's grace - an undeserved, unmerited favour from God. Although he was a persecutor of the Church, God's grace qualified him for apostleship, 1 Corinthians (15:9-11).

In the gospel story Luke recounts Simon Peter's humble acknowledgment of his unworthiness in the presences of Jesus, other disciples and a crowd of people, Luke (5:1-11). When Jesus approached Peter and other disciples, they were washing their nets after a disappointing night at sea. They were professional fishermen and knew how to fish and where to find the fish, and yet on that day, they had not caught any fish. After preaching to the disciples and to the crowd that had gathered there, Jesus told Peter to go out into deep water and put the nets out once again. Peter protested saying that they had worked all night and had caught nothing. Yet at Jesus' command, Peter let down the nets, and they caught so many fish that their nets began to break. Amazed by the power Jesus displayed in the abundant catch of fish, Peter came to a greater awareness of his own sinfulness and fell to his knees before Jesus. Jesus responded, "Don't be afraid, from now on you will be catching men", after which Peter and the others left everything and followed Jesus.

What is the message for us?

God calls us to more than belief in Christ. Just as He called Isaiah, Peter and Paul, God calls all of us to a specific purpose or a mission - like Isaiah, to deliver a message of repentance, to confront and correct a sin of a friend, a coworker, a neighbour, or a family member; or like Paul, to urge others to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and to live in light of the implications of that event; or like Peter, to bring or gather people into the "net" of God's kingdom, or any other purposes known to God alone from eternity.
God's call may come to us in many ways, and in His own time, not ours. It may come in a quiet voice or dramatic manifestations. It may come gradually or in a single, powerful moment. It may come while praying or reading the Scriptures or simply doing our regular daily work, or through special events or persons, or through life experiences.
God follows the same pattern in calling us. He takes the initiative to call us, but then leaves it up to us to either accept or reject it. Although He calls all of us, some of us ignore or reject it outright. Some of us hear and respond to it. The most common response is a response of unworthiness. Like Isaiah, Peter, Paul and other important figures in our faith, at times, we too may feel unworthy of our calling. We may feel ourselves to be weak, small, incapable, inadequate, inexperienced, and imperfect to be an ambassador, apostle, or witness for Christ.

We are all indeed sinners in thought, word, and deed. We know that we are all sinful and are lost in darkness. We know that we are people of unclean lips and unbelief. But God does not see us that way. He does not want us, sinners, to flee from Him but rather go to Him, fall at His feet and ask for grace. He does not call the righteous people, but rather the sinful and makes righteous those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. He receives the sinners like you and me, forgives us and purifies us from all our wrongdoing, 1 John (1:9), and then qualifies us through the power of the Holy Spirit, Acts (1:18), through the equipping of His Word, 1 Timothy (3:16-17), through the lessons of past experiences, James (1:2-3) and 1 Samuel (17:32-37), and through the supportive family and community of believers, Acts (16:2-3) and 2 Timothy (1:5-8) for His work in the world. So, trusting in God's purposes, promises and guidance, let us acknowledge our unworthiness and respond to His calling with the same humility, faith and obedience as Isaiah, Peter and Paul so as to bring Him glory on the earth and make more people become disciples of Christ, Matthew (28:19).

(P) Amen.

God Bless You!

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