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Sunday, February 8, 2004
Fifth
Sunday of Ordinary Time
Readings: First reading
The author places the scene in a specific period of time, the year
740 B.C.E., the year King Osiah died.
The story is divided into two parts: the vision (vv. 1-4) and
the reaction of the prophet (vv. 5-8).
A third part, which has been left out of this text (vv. 9-13),
describes the mission of the prophet. Really the whole chapter forms
one literary unit. Because
of the similarity between this narrative and the stories of the call
of Jeremias and Ezechiel, which also have three parts, some commentators
consider this story to be about Isaiah’s call.
However, the content indicates that it is a story about his mission.
The scene begins in the temple of Jerusalem, where the prophet has a vision of a heavenly liturgy. The prophet sees Yahweh dressed in the trappings of a king, exercising his power. The language is marked by notions of fullness and is expressed in phrases like “the sound of his mantle filled the temple”, “his glory fills the whole earth”... The seraphim (seraphim = burning), winged, fiery creatures, which are not yet the same as the angels of a later tradition, are seen above the king, in a posture of service. The seraphim intone a chant of «holy, holy, holy». The holiness of God is visible in its glory, and the glory of God is shown in the works of creation and in God’s liberating actions in favor of the people. Vv. 5-7 show the reaction of Isaiah before the vision; he emphasizes the impurity of his lips and the lips of his people. He feels lost, perhaps because he didn’t speak when he should have, and he felt that made him impure and incapable of exercising his vocation in Yahweh’s name. The anguished cry that shows his conversion is accompanied by a seraphim who touches Isaiah’s mouth with a burning coal, so that his sins can be forgiven. Isaiah is now fitted as prophet, not only to apeak, but to hear the voice of God, who seeks a prophet. Isaiah’s anguish about his sin changes to his security of being legitimized as a prophet, and he immediately answers, “Here I am”, thus demonstrating his availability and his absolute fidelity to the will of the Lord. Second reading
All of chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians has as its thematic focus the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, shown to be put in doubt in v.12: “How
can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?”. At the beginning of the chapter, Paul
recalls the Good News as the greatest gift given to the Community of
Corinth, a gift received and maintained with fidelity to the proclamation.
It seems clear that the element common to Christians of all races, cultures,
and traditions is the Word of God.
Paul describes the content of the Good News by citing a fragment
of the first Christian creed, which has Christ as the leading role,
has his death for our sins as the proof of solidarity,
has the Scriptures as its point of reference, has his burial
as the common human experience, has his resurrection as the direct intervention
of God, and has all those to whom he appeared as witnesses to his resurrection.
The God of life and the life of people is the purpose of every
Christian vocation, which is the call to defend and foster the growth
of life. «That they may have Life and have it in abundance».
Gospel
While in Mark, Jesus chooses his first disciples before beginning
his missionary activity, Luke first presents Jesus’s missionary
project at Nazareth (Lk 4,14-30) where he works his first miracles (Lk
4,31-44) and only later, as in today’s gospel, presents his selection
of the first disciples. The gospel begins by reviewing the success of
Jesus’s missionary activity. People were crowding about to hear
his words, while he’s at the shore of Lake Genesareth (which means
“lake of the garden of abundance.”). The same lake is also
known by the names Sea of Tiberias, for the harbor city which has its
name, and Sea of Galilee. It
is really a lake, although because of its size, its winds, and its fertility,
and because of the slight knowledge the Jews had of the ocean, from
ancient days it had been called a sea.
The lake is twenty kilometers long and thirteen kilometers wide. It is 207 meters below sea level. In the time of Jesus it was surrounded
by nine densely populated cities.
Jesus saw two empty boats, whose fishermen were on the shore washing their nets, and he used Simon’s boat, asking him to put out a bit from the shore so he could use the boat as a pulpit for preaching. Simon must have been surprised because the story indicates that he and the rest of the fisherman were more preoccupied with their nets than with the words of Jesus. In v. 4 Jesus has finished his preaching to the people and he seems
now to center his attention on the fishermen. He asks Simon to launch
out onto the lake and cast the nets.
The use of the plural verb “cast” indicates that
the request is not just for Simon, although he is the one directly addressed.
For the Christian communities «to row out to sea» means the necessity
of daring to go out and announce the word of God to other peoples. And
to cast the nets symbolizes the missionary activity of “fishing”
for men and women in the cause of the Kingdom. It must be that Jesus’s
authority is unquestioned, because Peter doesn’t object to his
orders. But Jesus’s request that he cast the nets must have seemed
unrealistic. ¿Should he believe in the word of a man he has just met
or in his own knowledge as a fisherman?
He knows from experience that you don’t fish in the daytime,
and even less if you’ve fished all night and caught nothing.
Simon, calling him “boss” (some translators wrongly interpret it as “master”)has his mind made up by the words of Jesus. They cast the nets and get an abundant catch. What this means for the Christian communities is the missionary necessity of announcing the word in order to “catch” people. The important thing here is that if we believe in Jesus, any hour is a good time for fishing. Peter called his companions to help him. The mission is always a community task. Only together can we fill the whole world with the liberating word of God. Simon Peter, upon seeing all this, reacts by calling Jesus Lord, whereas before he had called him boss. (Lord is the proper title by which the early Christian communities addressed the risen Jesus.) Peter simply recognizes Jesus as a fisherman, which means that up to now he had trusted Jesus as a person with authority and not as one who acted in the name of God. Simon as well as his companions (James and John) were left speechless
by this event. Jesus tells Simon, as the representative of all the disciples,
not to be afraid, because from thenceforth, they will be (and here the
plural verb is used which includes James and John) proclaimers or preachers
or fishers of persons. The
three fishermen leave all to follow Jesus.
He invites them to the detachment that all followers of Jesus
must have (cf Lk 5,28; 12,33; 18,22) and which must be distinctive of
every Christian community. Viewing
this event as one unit, we find in the Word one of the central
keys of the story. In the
beginning the people crowd around to hear the word. (v.1). Halfway through
the story, Peter decides to cast the nets, just because of Jesus’s
request (word) (v. 5). At the end Peter is left speechless (without
words)(v. 9), but Jesus rescues him in order to make him the missionary
of his word or the fisher of persons (vv. 10-11).
At the beginning the word brings together the crowd. In the middle the word is the strength and confidence which brings about an extraordinary catch. At the end the word is call and mission. For the revision of life
Probably in my youth I had a vivid experience of vocation. I felt called. What are the embers of that burning experience
like now? Have they been rekindled only to burn out or are they alive? Do I need to reawaken that experience,
or at least return to it, to renew my awareness of God’s call
to me?
For group meetings
-What is a vocation: something that is based outside ourselves, or something that lives in our hearts or our decisions? -Can I be a Christian if, without discerning in the presence of God, I make decisions about what to do with my life in its totality? -Reflect-dialogue about this thought (especially for group meetings with young people): “I don’t know of a more attractive privilege than that
of having found a vocation, of having found one’s own self. Most people live as if they are wandering
on the wrong track. They
accept their destiny with resignation, but not without the secret hope
of someday escaping it. The
only happy ones are those who know that the light that comes through
their balcony every morning comes to light up the exact task that is
assigned them in the world’s harmony.”
For the prayer of the faithful
Today we respond “We affirm this to you, Lord”. -Our joy for having been called into existence, into life and love...
We affirm this to you, Lord.
-Our gratitude for all those who have made possible our life, our
growth and our happiness...We affirm this to you, Lord.
-Our desire to be grateful and to freely give to others what we have
freely received... We affirm this to you, Lord.
-Our firm will that in our family and our community will be fostered
a loving atmosphere and a welcoming of God’s call...We affirm
this to you, Lord.
-Our
will to commit ourselves every day to build a world more worthy of God
and of God’s children...We affirm this to you, Lord.
For the community prayer
God, Father and Mother, you who unfathomably place us in existence and make us recipients of this invaluable wealth which is our life, our time, our possibility of being and choosing, of wanting and doing, of loving and building... We want to express to you our desire to be ever more aware of the value of the life that we carry in our hands, and the incomparable joy of knowing that we can make of this gift, before you and all of history, a personal, matchless adventure of love and happiness. You who are love and happiness forever and ever. Amen. |
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