February 8, 2004
Isaiah 6:1-8 + 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 + Luke 5:1-11
There is no doubt after hearing the reading from Isaiah before this Gospelthat the Church will assemble today to reflect upon its call. Paul reinforces the same theme as he summarizes his teaching and his own calling. Peter is the focus, his call, his response, and his mission. What we must remember is that Luke’s use of Peter is not historical or personal; but rather theological and collective. What Luke means when he says something of “Peter” he is saying of the Church. Consequently, there is sitting back and listening to this Gospel as though it was about someone else at some other time. It’s about us: our call, our response, and our mission.
What we come to understand from the Word we share today is what kind of people are called by God to complete the work of Jesus and in the sharing of tradition reveal the saving plan of God. We do not read of saints or scholars today. It is a man of unclean lips, one who has persecuted the church, and a sinful fisherman who are called.
What we also come to understand from the Word we share today is that the call itself comes in the normal circumstances of everyday life. Isaiah was in the Temple, not an unusual place to find a pious Israelite. Paul was running around in the fast lane as he always did. Peter was fishing. These people are inspired in ordinary places doing ordinary things. What is out of the ordinary is what they experience in those ordinary events, and Luke proposes that we might pay attention.
We have put ourselves in this church today because we have been called, because we have received a tradition to share and because the work of Jesus Christ is not yet complete. The world in which we live is not the Kingdom of God. It is barely a human place to live some of the time, and at best, we see the Kingdom of God dimly as though through a veil, but we do see it and know its coming none the less.
What we have come to understand through our tradition and in this place is that the further in-breaking of that Kingdom and its eventual triumph will depend upon our response to the call that has brought us here. For most of us, it is not a very dramatic call. It may simply be the call to be a parent. To shape the mind and the heart of child in the ways of Jesus Christ. It may be simply to be a teacher, a catechists, a priest, deacon, or sister, who is willing and ready to extend their everyday lives, like Peter. Called to do something illogical, like throwing the nets out once more after a long night of fishing without a catch. They were tired, getting the nets wet once again meant more heavy work; but they did it anyway, and what they discovered was more than net full of fish. The risk is that we might overlook the action of God, that we may think that someone else may do what we have been called to do, or that somehow the Kingdom is just going to happen by a miracle.
Luke would have us understand that fish got in that net because Peter and his companions put out the net again when Jesus asked them. The people of Corinth still preach the timeless Gospel to us today because Paul preached it to them. Israel drew near to the Lord because Isaiah was heard that voice in the Temple. All of them rose up from their sinfulness because they did not fail to see and to hear the action and word of God in their midst.
Like Isaiah, today we are in the Temple. Like Paul, many are in the fast lane, in the middle of city life, rushing here and there to make a name for themselves. Like Peter, some of us have been in the boat a long time, and we get tired. Yet we have inherited a tradition that must be handed on if we are to live. It is a tradition filled with promise and hope. It is a tradition of Justice and of Peace. It is a tradition of Forgiveness, tolerance, kindness and mercy.
If you listen very carefully, you will still hear the question: “Who will I send?” If you look very carefully, you will perceive who is in this boat with us, and what he asks of us. “And Jesus said to them: “Do not be afraid……..and they left everything and followed him.”