Deacon Tom Anthony

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 75

Reading 1 Is 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!"

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

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

Reading 2 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.

Or 1 Cor 15:3-8, 11

Brothers and sisters,
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 abnormally born,
he appeared to me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.

Alleluia Mt 4:19

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

Gospel Lk 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.

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

 It is amazing how a relationship with Jesus Christ can put a lot of things into perspective. It is one of the gifts that are given to us when we surrender our will over to Him and become open to a relationship with Him. A new way of looking at things is revealed and what is truly important is shown to us. The Gospel Reading emphasizes this point through the actions of Peter. Imagine the value of the fish that were caught when he was instructed to cast the nets back into the water after working all day with nothing to show for it. Two boats were completely filled with fish yet Peter was able to see beyond that and see what the miracle meant in relation to the words that Jesus was professing earlier that day on the banks of the lake. Peter knew he was in the presence of the Messiah and knew who he was in comparison to the greatness of Jesus: a sinner and not worthy of salvation. Yet Jesus revealed to Peter that in his unworthiness is where his own greatness was to be revealed. Peter, James, and John were called as they were: sinners and not worthy of what they were called to do. They responded by abandoning everything they had to follow Jesus.

Nobody is worthy of the love that God has for us. It is pure and perfect while we are dirty and broken. This love is never earned. It is offered freely. When we accept what is being offered to us is when things in our lives start to change. Being in the presence of something so beautiful and pure may at first cause fear and nervousness; there will be times of discomfort and embarrassment because the experience may be new to us and something that we are not used to. Our old habits and temptations of the flesh will cause us to have doubts and urge us to return to our comfort zone which includes acting out selfish behaviors and maybe even walking away from Him. We may even convince ourselves that true happiness lies in not changing but returning to what we know best: living for the moment and living in sin without knowing God. The challenge here is to commit to exploring this newfound feeling that is calling to us.

Unlike the pleasures of the flesh the pleasures of a relationship with God will not leave us empty. Instead, we have the capability of being transformed and healed every day through recognizing His presence and experiencing it by living with it. His presence is the pure love which created us and that which will ultimately redeem us if only we allow it to do its work. Everybody who is reading Sacred Scripture and these words that have been written are searching for something, including he who wrote these words: me. Like it or not, that means we all are exploring this relationship with God and what it means to us. There is no other plausible reason why we are all united together at this point in time with God. He is with us and working through us right now. This in itself shows progress. Arguably we all could be doing something else right now but we chose to be here. Different people can give different reasons for being part of this moment but it is still a shared moment with one thing in common: God being the subject and the presence of His love. What has been written and what is being read is secondary to the fact that we all have been gathered together to exercise a relationship with Him. Whatever else is gained will be unique to the individual but will also contribute to the whole community.

In the Scripture Reading today, Isaiah’s experience with God was at first a personal one where his witness of that which was perfect affected him in a personal way. He was witness to the greatness and perfection of God. At first, he came to the realization of his imperfection in comparison to the perfection of God; his unworthiness and the unworthiness of everything that God created in comparison to the creator. It was then, through his hapless state, that he was transformed by the experience into a better version of himself where he was drawn into a relationship with God. His imperfections were healed and through the experience of the perfect he too could not help but start his own journey to perfection. We too are capable of this experience with the perfect. It starts with being a witness to the greatness of God and letting him in. Even though we might feel vulnerable and uncomfortable with this at first, it is through commitment and a constant exercise of our relationship with God that it becomes more comfortable. The discomfort and unworthiness will pass away and only love will remain.

A relationship with Jesus Christ may start with a realization of our faults and shortcomings. There are many who don’t even give Jesus Christ a chance until they have nothing else to lose. It sure doesn’t end that way. The promise that Jesus Christ makes to us is that we will be better off through a relationship with Him. Wherever we are in our lives doesn’t matter. It is with Jesus Christ that we will rise higher and become better men and woman through the Christ Experience. The rising will never stop until we are joined with Him completely.

Deacon Tom