FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

 

Today we meditate on God’s call. God called Isaiah (first reading), Paul (second reading) and Peter (gospel). Different as each call and each called person was, the essential parts are the same: A call is God’s undeserved grace. The called man objects, God calms down all fears and promises assistance and even gives a sign. The called person accepts.

 

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-2a. 3-8

 

The call of the prophet Isaiah (Is 6:1-13), Jeremiah (Jer 1:4-19) and Ezekiel (Ez 1:1-3:32) is described more elaborately than the call of other prophets. We can distinguish (1) vocation vision, (2) “consecration”, (3) appointment (mission).

1.         Vocation vision (Is 6:1-5).

The vocation is for Isaiah as for every prophet the source of his strength. King Uzziah of Judah died in 742 B.C. In this year Isaiah sees the Lord seated on high throne (the vision of Yahweh in heaven is an imagery derived from the earthly temple in Jerusalem, in which his experience takes place). The temple in Jerusalem is an external expression of the heavenly temple. The threefold "Holy" was probably part of the liturgy in the earthly temple and entered also the Christian liturgy. Isaiah sees only the train of God’s garments, not God’s face. No living being can see him on earth. The door of the temple is shaking at the singing of the Seraphim ("the fiery ones, the burning ones”; fire is the element of the deity; thus they are conceived as the tongue of flame of the theophany). And as always when God appears man realizes his sinfulness. "Woe is me, I am doomed" (Is 6:5) Isaiah says.

2.         “Consecration” Is 6:6-7

Since Isaiah realizes his unworthiness (he cannot join the Seraphim in singing and thus is a man of unclean lips), one of the Seraphim takes an ember with tongs from the altar and touches the mouth of Isaiah and thus removes Isaiah’s wickedness, makes him clean, "consecrates" for his vocation as prophet.

3.         The appointment (mission) Is 6:8-13 is omitted in today's first reading. God asks: “Whom shall we send?" And Isaiah is ready to be sent: “Here I am, send me!" The content of Isaiah's mission is strange and hard: “Go and make the heart of this people sluggish, dull their ears and close their eyes. Else their eyes will see, their ears hear, their heart understand, and they will turn and be healed" (6:9-10). Even if we theologically say that God did not want the direct obduration of the Jews but only permitted it because of their lack of cooperation with God's grace, the outlook of Isaiah's work must have been
depressing that his preaching results in making the Jews just more stubborn. However, there is one hope: A remnant will remain faithful (6:13): "Holy offspring is the trunk". And from this trunk God will make a new beginning.

 

Second Reading: 1 Cor 15:1-11

Here we have the oldest report on the resurrection of Christ. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians about the year A.D. 56. Yet he tells the Corinthians (15:3) that what he transmitted to them (presumably when he first came to Corinth about 50) was information that he himself had received. The expressions "transmit" (paredoka) and "receive" (parelabon) are almost technical terms for the handing on of tradition, so that we are dealing here with a primitive tradition from Paul's early days as a Christian (mid- 30's?). Paul added 15:8-11. For a Greek the soul was immortal, but the body was the prison of the soul, and thus a Greek did not expect bodily resurrection. We recall that when the apostle spoke about resurrection on the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17:32) listeners began to laugh. Some Greeks may also have believed as Gnostics did, that through the sacraments they were raised already and therefore did not need a further resurrection of the body.

In 1 Cor 15:1-11 Paul speaks about the reality of Christ's resurrection. Christ's death for our sins, his burial and his resurrection on the third day, all in conformity with the prophecies (death foretold in Is 53:4-9, burial and resurrection in Is 53:9; Ps 6:3; 16:10; Jonah 2:1f) is the immovable foundation of our faith and one of the fundamental
articles of Paul's gospel.

This fact is attested by numerous eyewitnesses. Our faith in the risen Lord rests on these eyewitnesses to whom the risen appeared, not on the empty tomb. Christ appeared:

(1) to Cephas,

(2) to the Twelve,

(3) to more than 500 brethren at one time, of whom most remain alive until now, though some have fallen asleep.

(4) to James,

(5) then to all the apostles;

(6) last of all, as to one irregularly born, he appeared also to Paul.

It is discussed what sequence Paul follows here. Many would say, the historical sequence, omitting persons who have no authority (women, the disciples of Emmaus). Others think it is the sequence of precedence (1) Cephas is the head of the college of the apostles, (2) then come the twelve (to be exact, at that time the eleven); (3) 500 brethren would be relatives of Christ; (4) James was the bishop of Jerusalem. (5) All apostles are apostles in the larger sense, not the twelve, like Barnabas etc. (6) Finally comes Paul with the appearance of Christ to him before Damascus.

         Although Paul is not one of the Twelve, he is an apostle, among others because he has seen the risen Lord. And yet, in his humility he has to admit that he is not worthy of his call because he persecuted the church. Nevertheless, with the help of God's grace he accomplished more than others. To say this is true and humble at the same time.

         The reality of Christ’s resurrection could be a homily by itself. The last paragraph, however, about Paul's call, fits in with the topic of the first reading and the gospel.

 

Reading of the Good News: Luke 5:1-11

 

The pericope of the call of the first disciples we find also in the other two Synoptic Gospels (Mt 4:18-22; Mk 1:16-20). But there the call takes place in the beginning of Christ's public activity; here in Luke it comes a little later. Probably it is one and the same historical call, reported differently according to the theology of Luke. Without denying that one has to follow Christ resolutely and wholeheartedly as it is stressed in Mark, Luke wants to say that Christ gives a person time, and gives him the experience of a mysterium tremendum so that the person is overwhelmed and follows.

John brings this miraculous catch (in Jn 21:3-14) after Easter. It is discussed if Luke or John has the more historical place. For John the deep faith Peter had in the Lord was possible only after Easter.

In the gospels of Mark and Matthew this pericope is a call of the first four apostles (Peter, Andrew, John and James) in Luke the stress is on Peter. He is singled out. Christ preaches from Peter's boat and Peter recognizes of the Lord and follows Christ to catch men.

 

HOMILY
GOD'S CALL

 

1.         Whenever God calls somebody to follow him more closely it is because God loves that person more than others. It is because he has chosen him in a special way, out of pure grace and not because of any special merit of his. This is especially clear in the case of Paul. Fanatically he had persecuted the Christians and thus Christ himself. We do not have to assume that Paul was a sinner and had to be converted and in that sense was unworthy of God's call. His life before Damascus was not the life of an Augustine before his baptism. Rather he was zealously active for the promotion and keeping of the Mosaic
Law (Acts 26:4). But this way his mind was certainly far away from Christ (if he ever knew him personally we may doubt) and could never expect to be called by him and even less expect it. Thus he confesses: "I am the least of the apostles; in fact, because I persecuted the Church of God, I do not even deserve the name (1 Cor 15:9). And yet Christ called him to be his apostle, to bring his name before the Gentiles (Acts 26:17).

Isaiah and Peter did not live a life completely away from God or from Christ before they were called. But a grace their call was just the same.

2.   God takes people from all walks of life and calls them to follow him more closely. Some are humanly speaking prepared for their future profession, others less. Nobody can say: "I have learned the trade. Now God can send me." Rather, God's call empowers him to go and preach.

a.   Isaiah was well educated as it seems and we can conclude from his book. He moved easily among kings and had ready access to the royal presence (Is 7). Thus some believe that he was a royal official as Gad was for king David (2 Sam 24:11) or was even related to the royal house. But we have to leave it open. More likely is that he went through the school of Hebrew wisdom because he is well versed in Hebrew wisdom. Thus he uses typical Wisdom vocabulary like "hear and understand" (Is 6:9) instead of the more prophetic summon "Hear the word of Yahweh!” Typical of wisdom use are the parables in Isaiah: the parable of the vineyard (Is 5:1-7) and the parable of the farmer (Is 28:23-29) and the use of plays on words, e.g.: "He was looking for justice (in Hebrew: sedaqah) but behold there was bloodshed (in Hebrew: se’aqah)” (Is 5:7). The richness of the pictures Isaiah uses, the power of his prophecies clearly prove how well educated he was and he is considered one of the greatest prophets of all times. Humanly speaking he was well prepared for his call. And yet, it was not his preparation that made him prophet, but God's call.

b. In the case of Paul one could perhaps even more say that he was well prepared in the sense of a good education. Predestined to be bridge-builder between Judaism and Hellenism God gave him a good Hebrew and Greek education. His early Jewish education he received, as it was custom from his father and since public schools came into existence in 64 A.D. (cf. Nathan Drazin History of Jewish Education from 515 B.C.E. to 220 under Joshua ben Gamala C.E. Baltimore: The John Hopskins Press, 1940, p. 46 ff.) we can assume that Paul went to the “vineyard”, a school attached to the to the synagogue at the age of six. Probably at the age if fifteen Paul attended the temple school in Jerusalem under the famous Rabbi, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) we are not sure if Paul became an ordained Rabbi, but he certainly received all the education of one and thus the highest education for any Jew. And his book was the bible. – Paul’s Greek education was more indirect. Growing up in the Hellenistic city of Tarsus he inhaled, as it were, Greek culture and spoke Greek as well. His letters prove how versed he was and in his speech on the areopagus in Athens, he tries to prove to the Athenians that we all can come to the knowledge of the true God, if only follow the lead of nature and our own conscience, because “we are of God’s offspring.” This is probably a quotation from the Phainomena of the Cilician poet Aratus (3rd century B.C.). And Paul goes on saying: “In him we live and move and have our being". This again is a quotation from the poet Epimenides of Cnossos (6th century B.C.). Thus we may assume that Paul was versed in Greek poets. Humanly speaking, he was well prepared for Christ's call. But when the Lord finally called him, it was undeserved grace, after all.

c. How well educated Peter was we do not know. Modern writers sometimes say, Peter would have never passed the entrance examination of a modern vocational director. What we know is only that Peter was not as learned as Isaiah and Paul, but was a simple fisherman who probably would have never thought of being called by Christ as little as Amos, a shepherd of Tekoa (Amos 1:1) a farmer growing sycamores (Amos 7:14), was thinking of being called to be God's prophet.

3.         Thus we clearly see: God's call results in a vocation, not a profession.

In the case of a prophet this distinction was quite clear. There were smaller prophets who made prophesying their profession, their livelihood. And these smaller prophets who made prophesying their livelihood were often false prophets, as we see in the case Amaziah, who attacked Amos because Amos in God's name had to foretell disaster to Israel because of their sins, whereas Amaziah foretold golden days. And so Amaziah told Amos: "Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah! There earn your bread by prophesying, but never again prophesy in Bethel; for it is the king's sanctuary and a royal temple" (Amos 7:12-13). Amaziah who was a self-made prophet, considered the sanctuary at Bethel his domain and told the king what the king liked to hear, not the true word of God. And since Amos told the opposite, i.e. disaster, Amaziah and probably also Jeroboam II the king of Israel wanted to get rid of Amos. But Amos answered to Amaziah: “I was no prophet (i.e. a professional prophet, who made prophesying his livelihood), nor have I belonged to a company of prophets (again people who made prophesying their profession); I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” (Amos 7:14-15). Isaiah equally well did not live from prophesying.

a. Equally much God's call to an apostle made him accept this call as a vocation, something for which he would spend all his energy and time, not caring how much it would bring him back in return. He would trust in God's providence that he would take care of his earthly needs.

b. To be called by God as an apostle nowadays must also be a vocation, not a profession, a sure way of making a living. In the measure the call ceases being a vocation it loses of its effectiveness.

4.   When God calls, man realizes his unworthiness. After all, the call is a call to do Christ's job, to preach, to bring men to God, to be fishers of men. And who are we to do such tremendous work!

a. Isaiah could not join the Seraphim in praising God and thus he also realized that his words would not be sufficient in proclaiming God's message.

b.   Paul realized that he had persecuted the church. And thus: how could he become an apostle of Christ whom he had tried to kill!

c. Peter became fully aware of his unworthiness after the miraculous catch.

Whenever God breaks into our life his light makes us aware of our shadows and darkness.

5.   But God does not frighten us. Rather he gives us a sign that he is calling us. And this is different from case to case:

a. In a symbolic act a Seraphim cleansed the lips of Isaiah and gave him thus the confidence necessary to accept God's call.

b. Paul was referred to Ananias for further clarification of the immediate vision he received. And after some instruction Paul was baptized and he fully accepted God's call.

c. Peter, a fisherman was impressed by a miracle in his own realm. After having caught nothing during the best time for fishing, the night, he caught so many fish during the day that it was too much for two boats because he believed in Christ's word. Humanly speaking Christ’s word did not make sense. What did he as Rabbi know about fishing! But Peter said the wonderful word: "What you, Lord, say, makes sense always, even if I do not understand it. Thus I will try again upon your word.”

6.         A call wants to be accepted, even if we have misgivings and objections and doubt at the beginning.

a. Isaiah is usually called the choleric prophet, who wholeheartedly accepts: “Here I am send me" (Is 6:8).

b. Whatever Paul did, he did wholeheartedly. With all his strength had he persecuted the church. With the same zeal and total dedication did he now place himself at the disposal of Christ and considered everything a loss in order to win Christ (Phil 3:8).

c. Peter upon accepting Christ's call left everything and followed the Lord (Lk 5:11).