FIFTH SUNDAY OF
ORDINARY TIME

 

First Reading (Is 6:1-8)

 

There are experiences in life that cannot be easily put down writing: how can one, for instance, express the joy of a mother holding her child in her arms? How can one express in words what a young man feels as his girl professes for the first time her love for him? Emotions, sentiments and spiritual experiences are not easily described. This is why when Isaiah wants to tell the story of his vocation he uses images. It would be naive to see in what the reading of today is telling us the description of a news item: God does not need to sit down, nor does he need to cover himself with a cloak to keep off the cold, nor does he need the help of the seraphim, as if they were his bodyguards. Isaiah did not have an apparition, he is only describing his interior experiences by using images.

One day, perhaps while praying in the temple of Jerusalem, he realized that God wanted him to be a prophet. He felt very upset, because he knew that the call was from the Lord of the universe, the all-powerful, the one who has his throne in the heavens and is continually attended by the seraphim, who keep singing without end “Holy, Holy, Holy!” (1-4). He was also well aware of his frailty and unworthiness and was frightened by the mission he was to be entrusted. How could he, a man with impure lips, announce the word of God, the Sabaoth, three times holy? (5).

But God is not frightened off by sin, he is capable of purifying man to make him fit to transmit his message. Isaiah watched a cherub take the holy fire with which he came to touch his lips to burn away all iniquity (6-7). How could he still resist the call of the Lord? He replied: "Here am I, send me" (8).

Do those who nowadays announce the word of God have the feelings and attitude of Isaiah? Are they aware that their lips are impure? In the gospel we shall be hearing that Peter, when called by Jesus, will confess his sinfulness and unworthiness to carry out the mission asked of him.

But our impurity and sin should not discourage us. They are not a good reason to turn down the ministry that the community entrusts to us. God will purify our lips. How? He will correct what is wrong in our life. We shall be men of pure lips when our behavior will no longer contradict what we teach.

 

Second Reading 1 Cor 15:1-11)

 

Many Corinthians had welcomed the Gospel as a nice moral doctrine a useful aid fostering a wise and sober living; but several people, even among the Christians, found it difficult to believe in the resurrection. They were saying that man, after death, would disappear completely, or, at most, only his spiritual part, a kind of shadow, something next to nothing, would continue to exist.

Paul reacts very strongly against this deformation of the most important and fundamental part of the Christian message. He says: my brothers, whoever has this kind of faith believes in vain (2). He then reminds the Corinthians of the profession of faith proclaimed by all communities: “Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried; and that on the third day he was raised to life, in accordance with the scriptures" (4).

After presenting this "Creed" of the first Christians, Paul lists six manifestations of the risen Lord: to Peter, to the twelve, to more than five hundred brethren, to James, to all the apostles and, finally to himself. What is all this list for? Can it be the proof that leads one to believe? Are these “witnesses" of the resurrection the same kind of witnesses called by a court to describe the course of certain events in front of a judge?

Listen here: the resurrection is not an event of this world, and cannot be “established” through indisputable evidence. It is something that takes place in the world of God and thus it escapes our senses. What we can verify with certainty is that the group of his disciples, at first so frightened, shed all fears and maintained that Jesus is alive even in front of those who were threatening them with death.

The apostles did not arrive at this faith rapidly and suddenly. Led by the Scriptures and enlightened by the Spirit, they were led to believe in the resurrection of Christ slowly and progressively. By telling us their experience, Paul is inviting us to follow the same course: advises us to take up the Scriptures, to listen to the word of God being proclaimed in our communities, to open our heart to the light of the Spirit. We shall thus have an experience similar to the experience of the first witnesses of the resurrection.

 

Gospel (Lk 5:1-11)

 

The Christians of the first communities were asking themselves just as we do: why is Jesus inviting us to follow him? What is his plan for us? Does he want us to reach heaven everyone by himself or does he want to achieve a plan of salvation for all and how? Luke replies to all these questions not through arguments, but by telling us an episode in the life of Jesus: the call of his first disciples.

One day the Master is on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. The crowd is pressing him on all sides, so he gets into the boat of Simon and preaches the word of God to the crowd from there. When he has finished speaking to the crowd, he orders Simon to put out into deep water and pay out the nets for a catch. Peter objects, he finds the order foolish, the hour of the day is quite unsuitable for fishing, but trusting on the word of Jesus he casts his nets and catches a huge number of fish. Seeing this extraordinary thing, Peter is seized by fear and falls at the knees of the Master and confesses his sinfulness and unworthiness of being near him. But Jesus declares: "from now on it is people you will be catching." And the passage ends by saying: "They left everything and followed him." The mission of being "fishers of men" is not addressed only to Peter, but to all those who were with him, that is, to all his disciples. Let us now try to understand the message.

Let me first draw your attention to some significant details: Jesus is no longer teaching in the synagogue as he had done so far, he now proclaims the word of God from the boat of Simon (3). The symbolism is here quite evident: the only place where one can hear the word of the Master is now the Christian community; this is where all people seeking light, consolation and hope must come to, and not to other places or pulpits. What kind of people shall we find in this boat, that is, the Church? Will they all be holy people? Let us not cherish this kind of false hopes! Only God is holy (and we repeat it also every Sunday in the Glory: "You alone are the holy one!”). We shall be finding good people, yet sinners. Peter is admitting this also on behalf of all others. But even if the people in the boat are sinners, it is from this very boat that the word of God is proclaimed.

A second detail: It is Peter who leads the boat out into deep water (4), he is the one proclaiming his faith in the power of the word of Jesus (5), he proclaims him "Lord" (8), he is the one invited to become “a fisher of men" (10). All these elements point to Peter as one entrusted with a particular ministry in the Church. His task is to listen carefully to the word of the Lord and then to move not towards the place that his experience and professionality would lead him, but where the Master wants him to go. This passage is not a call on those who are entrusted with the ministry of leadership in the Christian communities to claim a right to command and impose their will; it is rather an invitation to see if they really can recognize the voice of the Master and distinguish it from their own emotions, intuitions and personal ideas. Where and how can they hear this voice? How can they recognize it?

Another significant detail is this: the miraculous catch is not the result of the ability and initiative of Peter, but of the "if you say so" of the Master (5). Are our communities aware that their only force comes from the Word entrusted to them? Aren't they tempted, at times, to trust on the forces other men trust in: money, power, haughtiness? Aren't there people who still think that a new world may be brought forth by war? Isn’t there somebody proposing exemplary and harsh punishments and even death sentences, to bring about an equitable society? And if one is of this mind whom does one trust: the word of the Lord or one’s own judgment?

Let us now take on the central theme of our passage. Luke's main reason to tell us the episode is to manifest to the disciples of his communities what is their task in the world: they are called to be "fishers of men”.

But who are the fishers and who are the fish? In the past, priest were considered good "fishermen" if, with the use of suitable baits, they could increase the number of people baptized, and of repentant sinners asking confession. Also the common Christians could be considered “fishers of men” if they aided the priests in their task. The dedication of all these people is certainly praiseworthy, but the words of Jesus have a wider meaning.

The fish, as we well know, are happy to be in the water, and quite unhappy to be fished out of it. But people are not at all at ease in that water, especially in the immense and deep waters of the sea, tossed around by the stormy waves. Out of their water the fish will die, while men will live. This is the symbolism used by Jesus to explain what is the mission of his disciples. He is not telling them to "catch people with a fish-hook”, he is telling them to "draw them out alive and with a net” from the stormy waves that sweep them away and drag them down to the bottom of the sea.

The people who need to be "fished", that is, helped to live, are all those who are submerged and overwhelmed by their vices and at the mercy of their passions, who can only hurt themselves and others. But “fish” that needs to be drawn out of its desperate condition is also the whole of humanity that risks to be swallowed up by the forces of evil: selfishness, violence, hatred, war, deceit, moral corruption, destruction of the family… The Disciples of Christ have the task of saving it from this catastrophe.

This mission has not been entrusted only to priests, but to the whole of the Christian community, which must prove that it is possible to have a society founded on new principles: forgiveness, sharing of goods, reciprocal service, respect of others. Have we ever reflected on the fact that our communities are expected to draw humankind out of the ocean of evil that risks to smother it? What concrete action are they taking? What kind of salvation do present-day people expect of us? How can we best serve them? Must we limit ourselves to save people one by one or should we also try to change the structures of sin that support the present-day society?

 

Theme of the Sunday

CALLED BY CHRIST TO SAVE
THE WHOLE OF HUMANITY

 

The first reading and the gospel describe two vocations: that of Isaiah, chosen as prophet, and that of the apostles, transformed by Christ into fishers of men.

When Isaiah heard the call of the Lord, he became deeply aware of his frailty. How could his impure lips speak in the name of God? Peter, when called by Jesus to be "fisher of men "felt, like Isaiah, unworthy and a sinner. And yet God chose them for his mission.

We are called by God to be prophets like Isaiah or fishers of men like Peter. Perhaps, forgetting that we are sinners, we felt even too proud and sure of ourselves; perhaps, looking at our misery and frailty, we got discouraged and forgot that God purifies us and can work wonderful deeds through us.

In the second reading we have other examples of people chosen for a mission. They are the witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. Like Isaiah and Peter, also Paul feels that he is unworthy of the vocation he received from God. He calls himself "an abortion", an imperfect person, born in an abnormal way, and unworthy of being called apostle. But in spite of being a sinner, Paul became a great announcer of the Gospel.