Fifth Sunday Homily in Ordinary Time Year C

FIFTH SUNDAY HOMILY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C

Is 6:1-8            1 Cor 15:11     Lk 5:1-11

Put Out into Deep Water

1st Reading – Isaiah 6:1-2A, 3-8

¹ 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.

^2A Seraphim were stationed above.

³ They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!”

⁴ At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵ 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!”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

⁷ He touched my mouth with it, and said, “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”

⁸ 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!”

Responsorial Psalm – Psalms 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8

R. (1c) In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.

¹ 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;
^2AB I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.

^2BC Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
³ When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth;
⁵ and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD:
“Great is the glory of the LORD.”
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.

^7D Your right hand saves me.
⁸ The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.

2nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

¹ I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.

² Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

³ 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;

⁴ that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;

⁵ that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

⁶ After that, Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

⁷ After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

⁸ Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.

⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Or 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 11

Brothers and sisters,

³ 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;

⁴ that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;

⁵ that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

⁶ After that, Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

⁷ After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

⁸ Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.

¹¹ Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Alleluia – Matthew 4:19

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
¹⁹ Come after me
and I will make you fishers of men.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel – Luke 5:1-11

¹ While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.

² He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.

³ 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.

⁴ After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”

⁶ When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.

⁷ 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.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

⁹ For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him,

¹⁰ 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.”

¹¹ When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

Homily

The fisherman’s Net; The Awesomeness of God;

The Holiness of God; God’s Call.

Henry Thoreau, of Walden fame, said that the mass of people lead lives of quiet desperation. While that may be true of the mass of people, it’s certainly not true of those who involve themselves in causes greater than themselves. Such are the people in today’s liturgy.

At this point in St Luke’s story of Jesus’ life, Jesus’ pulpit for a while will be the outdoors- the hillside, the boat, the open road. Right now the crowd was pressing in on Jesus (v. 1) at the shore of the Lake of Galilee. The fishermen who owned the two boats alongside the lake had disembarked and were washing their nets (v. 2). Jesus got into the boat that was Simon Peter’s and asked him to put out a short distance from the shore (v. 3). In that position, which prevented the crowds from crushing in too close, Jesus taught them. When he finished, he gave Simon Peter that meaningful command that takes away desperation and is applicable to the lives of all of us, “Put out into deep water” (v. 4).

St Peter had many reasons against this disturbance to his routine. He knew that night- time was the best time for fishing, and this was morning. He knew tides and times as only long- time fishermen do, and this wasn’t the right moment. He had worked hard all night and caught nothing (v. 5), and he was tired. But he gave an admirable response, which amounted to saying, “If you say so, I’ll do it.” And he did. The result? They caught such a great number of fish that their nets were tearing (v.6).

Peter had witnessed miracles of Jesus before – healing, including the cure of his mother- in- law, but he didn’t know medicine; the changing of water into wine, but he wasn’t a physicist. But those miracles didn’t reach him as much as this one did. He did know fishing, and he could testify that what he had just experienced was extremely unusual. To recognize a miracle – or a person – one must have an eye that really sees. Many people had seen apples fall before Isaac Newton did, but Newton saw it and came up with the law of gravity; many people had seen kettles of water boil before James Watt did, but Watt saw it and came up with the steam engine.

Peter was so overwhelmed that he fell at Jesus’ knees and asked the Lord to leave him, for he was a sinful man (v. 8). When at the beginning Jesus had told him to put out into deep water, Peter had called him “Master”. Now, reflecting his awe, he called him “Lord”.

Peter’s sense of God’s awesome presence was intimate – as intimate as the call of Isaiah in today’s First Reading. Isaiah’s summons had all the elements of vocation – God’s call, the individual’s misgivings, God’s reassurance, the commission for a task, and the individual’s faith acceptance of the call. Isaiah, terrified when he remembered the sinfulness of himself and his people, dreamed of six-winged celestial beings called Seraphim singing before God, “Holy, holy, holy” (v.3).

Holiness is the essential quality of God. The word indicates God’s utter transcendence, His complete apartness from anything sinful, and the mystery which belongs to God alone. The threefold repetition stresses the superlative. We repeat these words before the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass as a reminder that we’re about to experience the awesome presence of the all-holy God.

The Seraphim’s song concluded, “the earth is filled with his glory!” – God’s glory being the radiation of His holiness upon the world, especially people. As Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is people fully alive.” Isaiah showed the impressiveness of it all by speaking of the place shaking and the house being filled with smoke (v. 4). The smoke, a sign of the divine presence, was reminiscent of the clouds which surrounded God on Mount Sinai.

Popular belief had it that to see God would lead to one’s death. A person couldn’t see God and live (Ex 33:20). So the reaction of Isaiah, who was overwhelmed by his personal unworthiness, was almost humorous, “I’m doomed! (v. 5). Then God took the initiative, as He does with all unworthiness. He had one of the Seraphim take one of the coals burning for the incense at the altar (v. 6) and touch Isaiah’s mouth with it (v. 7). Isaiah was thus symbolically purified to be worth of his calling to speak as God’s prophets. Finally, in the ancient imagery of God enthroned above the firmament and holding court with His heavenly advisors, God asked, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” (v. 8). And Isaiah, now readied, answered with wholehearted generosity, “Here I am, send me!”

The vision is aptly modernized in a poem that updates God’s call to all of us (from Marriage Encounter, Fond du Lac, Wis.):

And I said who me?

And He said yes, you.

And I said

But I’m not ready yet

And there is company coming

And I can’t leave the kids

And you know there’s no one to take my place.

And He said you’re stalling.

And the Lord said go

And I said but I don’t want to

And He said I didn’t ask if you wanted to

And I said

Listen I’m not the kind of person

To get involved in controversy

Besides my father won’t like it

And what will my neighbours think?

And He said baloney.

And yet a third time the Lord said go

And I said do I have to?

And He said do you love Me?

And I said

Look, I’m scared people are going to hate me

And cut me up in little pieces.

I can’t take it all by myself.

And He said where do you think I’ll be?

And the Lord said go

And I sighed

Here I am, send me.

There’s another commemoration of Isaiah’s impressive reverie at Mass. The minister, just before he reads the Gospel, prays quietly: “Almighty God, cleanse my heart and my lips that I may worthily proclaim your Gospel.” And when the Gospel is announced we all trace the cross upon our forehead, lips, and heart, asking that our thoughts and feelings be cleansed and made worthily to receive God’s word and our lips able to proclaim it.

As with Isaiah, God took the initiative with Peter. Seeing that Peter’s feeling of unworthiness was not unwillingness, Jesus advises him not to be afraid, and added that from now on he as a fisherman would have the lifelong vocation of catching people (v. 10). No matter what Peter’s life had been up to this point, God could make all things new, even to change unworthiness. Then, in contrast to the beginning when Simon to go a short distance from the shore and then into deep water, the elegant conclusion tell us that they brought their boats back to the shore (v. 11). The disciples now left everything and became Jesus’ full- time followers- a brief summary of what must have been a long and gradual process.

Like Isaiah and Peter, St Paul also had a sense of awe and of unworthiness before God, for having hated Jesus and his Church. In fact, when we look at the Apostles, we find that none of them had much native talent or ability- with the possible exception of Judas Iscariot. But God often chooses   the foolish to put to shame the so-called “worldly wise”. He called a great sinner, Augustine, to be a bishop, doctor of the Church, and saint; he called an adversary of Augustine, a razorpenned intellectual, to be the great Saint Jerome; he called Thomas Aquinas, judged by his peers to be a “dumb ox”, to be a great theologian and saint; he called a simple man like St John Vianney to be the patron of the diocesan clergy; and he called a relatively unintelligent man like Joseph of Cupertino to be a saintly priest.

Today’s section of Paul’s letter to Corinthians was prompted by the belief among some Corinthians that the resurrection of the body is impossible. In today’s passage, Paul appeals to the testimony of those who saw the risen Christ, mentioning only the appearances to those persons whom Jewish law would accept as witnesses.

As in the Gospel, Paul makes Peter preeminent by saying that Jesus had appeared to him before he came to the rest of the Apostles (v. 5). Thus did Jesus extend his love and graciousness toward one who had denied him in his greatest need. But Peter in his regret had also cried his heart out. And Jesus’ great wish was to comfort Peter in his pain. A love is truly outstanding if it thinks more of the heartbreak of one who has hurt than of the hurt that the other has inflicted.

And the more than five hundred to whom the risen Jesus appeared – can you imagine their reaction to an appearance by the one who had been crucified and buried but who was now risen and standing in their midst? Those people, who had been crushed by his death, would be thunderstruck. They would greet him not by polite applause, but with a standing ovation. They would have jumped for joy, hugged their neighbor, and broken out in laughter.

Isaiah, Peter, and Paul were all called by God to put out into the deep waters of life. Through our baptismal charge, so are we. They proclaimed their unworthiness in the presence of the Holy One. So should we.

Perhaps we’re most like Peter, and perhaps our call is most like his. He blew hot and cold, was sometimes insightful and sometimes obtuse, sometimes brave and at other times weak. Like Peter, let’s accept the risk of casting off from our shore – secure, sheltered, and comfortable – to go wherever the spirit blows, and set out on the adventure of faith. The philosopher Nietzsche said, “Build your houses on the rim of Mt. Vesuvius.” By that he meant that it’s desirable to live dangerously. In our case, supreme love can’t exist without supreme daring.

When we wonder why somebody doesn’t do something, let’s realize that I am somebody. With our whole lives, let’s risk putting out into deep water. Thus we never need to lead   lives of quiet desperation.