Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 75
Reading I
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
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 II
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
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Come after me
and I will make you fishers of men.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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,
WOW. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians really puts forth some testaments of our faith that we are required to acknowledge. We need to understand that, regardless of the situations we find ourselves in, there are certain things that will never change. These things, if we acknowledge them, can create a solid foundation in our lives where we can then proceed to build ourselves a future with no regrets and no tribulations that cannot be overcome. Jesus Christ did indeed die for our sins. We are broken and beyond repair if we stay alone. With Jesus Christ we can be healed and restored to the perfection and glory that God intended for us in the first place. The challenges that we face are nothing when we accept the help and guidance of Jesus Christ. Let us put ourselves in the position of The Apostle Paul for a moment. He was shipwrecked three times, imprisoned, beaten, and received forty lashes minus one five times. He was also stoned and mistreated. These things he faced with the knowledge that Jesus was with him throughout it all. There were times when he had his doubts, as we all do, but these he faced the same way he faced all challenges before him: with the understanding that his sufferings were only for the moment while the Glory of God lasts forever. The darkness is never constant, and it can never overcome the light.
Paul continues with own testimony regarding his conversion, describing how what he received was received undeservedly. He was beyond lost before receiving the revelation of Jesus Christ. He was a persecutor and murderer of Christians. If anyone thought someone was beyond redemption, it would be Paul. Yet, it was through Jesus Christ that he was healed and transformed into a new creation. This serves as good news to us. If Paul wasn’t beyond redemption, then we cannot be by comparison. This understanding can serve as comforting news when we are faced with the pain of sin and the embarrassment of not conducting ourselves rightly as receivers of the Christian Message. Nobody is perfect. Nobody will be perfect. We all do the best we can do and strive to do better when we fall short. Through this journey we are encouraged to make the adjustments necessary when we gain wisdom through our mistakes and missteps. We can then repent for our wrongdoings and make a commitment to do better.
Jesus did not call his first disciples because of their perfections, but more for their imperfections. It was through a relationship with Jesus that they were then molded and shaped into a new creation. We all can expect the same thing through a relationship with Jesus. The gifts that we receive will never cease if we only stay open to receiving them. This does take constant work on our part, but the results truly speak for themselves. Can any of us say with any conviction that we are better off without Jesus Christ? Gathered together in Christian Community to worship our God and to share each other’s joys and pain can only bring about positive results in comparison to being alone. Jesus does not want us to be alone, nor does He want us to be in a constant state of suffering alone without an opportunity to be relieved from that which ails us. He wants to be our remedy. He wants His love for us to heal us and make us better people.
Just as the disciples were called, we too are called. We are called to serve Him, live with Him, and to love Him. It is up to us to answer that call and to accept what is being offered to us. As the Psalm says, “As morning breaks, I look to you, O God, to be my strength this day.” Looking to God enables us to put our focus on that which is pure good and pure love. With our attention on that, everything that we experience can be put into its proper perspective with God as the guiding force in our life. Why would we want to be guided by anything else?
Deacon Tom
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