Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-22; Luke 5:1-11
No One gives what one hasn’t: Encounter the Lord First, then Save Others!
This Latin proverb – Nemo dat quod non habet – “no one gives what one hasn’t,” comes to live in the readings of this weekend. Isaiah, a name which means “God saves” or “God is salvation,” was having a comfortable Jewish life, if you like, he was a gentleman: we were not told that he was a thief, adulterer, swindler: he should have been in prison or his conversion or occupation should have been explained to us; he must have been an ordinary guy, like you and me, going to the temple regularly, as we go to church or attend Mass regularly, otherwise, he wouldn’t have seen the glory of the Lord in the Temple. How regular a guy are you, going by the twenty-first century’s standards: is that good enough for a Christian? Or can someone like that – a regular guy – pass for a Christian?
Isaiah was jolted out of his comfort zone, because it wasn’t the Lord’s comfort zone: “I saw the Lord” (Isaiah 6:1), he says. This is a self confession of an encounter with God! How fascinating, what follows: “All the earth is filled with his glory” (Isaiah 6:) confess the Seraphim – the burning ones, and Isaiah repeats that to us. Going beyond all fascinations, however, Isaiah makes a discovery of himself: “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,” he concludes.
How come Isaiah never knew that he was a sinner – “I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips” – up until this experience of encounter with God? Only an encounter with God can do this! But the sins of Isaiah are not of interest to God, because he sends a Seraph, a burning one, to burn out his sins – “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” Here is what interests the Lord: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8). To him or her who accepts to be the Lord’s messenger receives the Lord’s forgiveness.
Three important lessons come across strongly from our first reading: 1) being a regular guy is not being a Christian – it simply means one is blind to the reality of sin, so everything is good and slick! 2) When One has the courage to admit that sin is something offensive to God, and that one needs to do all in one’s power to atone for personal sins, and to avoid the occasions of sins, then, one becomes a beginner-Christian. 3) when one accepts to be a prophet, that is, to share one’s convictions with others, especially to challenge others’ lifestyles with the message/Words of God, then one becomes an adult Christian.
A clear distinction between the call of Jeremiah last week, who was called in the womb – like infant baptism, and that of Isaiah, this week, highlights human freedom vis-à-vis the practice of the faith. Although called from the womb, Jeremiah was reminded of his call as an adult – what was he (Jeremiah) doing before a reminder came to him in adulthood? In his adulthood, Isaiah, like Saul becoming Paul, encounters the Lord, and says: “Here I am,’ I said; ‘send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).
You know what, the Lord is tired of you and me being regular guys and believing that sin is normal. What is more, he wants you and me to grow up – he challenges us to become adults in the faith – to become preachers of the faith. One thing is sure, God has no intention of manifesting himself to everybody directly, otherwise, you and I will be useless as messengers. Here and now, you and I are the Isaiahs and Jeremiahs, the prophets who must confront our generation by denouncing sin in ourselves first, before denouncing it in others.
Our gospel reading today makes it abundantly clear that in every generation and in every place, God continues to recruit messengers of the good news, among those who want to abandon their comfort zones to transfer themselves to God’s comfort zone – a comfort zone that is meant for adults in the faith, ready and willing to be persecuted for their faith! Yes, Jesus calls two brothers, not for themselves, but to become fishers of men and women. Jesus extends the same challenge to us – to leave our comfort zones and go out in search of regular people to make them active Christians, like the Seraphim who are on-fire for God and his service!
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man,” (Luke 5:) provides the humility characteristics of every messenger – we are all sinners, or a better expression – “we are all wounded healers!” But a wounded healer is capable of fidelity. Isaiah and Peter were called as sinners, but not called to remain sinners; we too are not called to remain sinners but to become models as close as possible to whom we preach – Christ Jesus himself.
Our second reading provides an example of fidelity – “for I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received” (1 Corinthians 15:3). The transformative power of our experience of encounter with God is what we share with others. It is true that, in this quotation, it is fidelity to the truth of the message of salvation, called the good news, that Paul is handing over, but he had said to the Corinthians what his presence among them did: “my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). If Paul’s encounter with Christ on his way to Damascus made fidelity possible for Paul, that too is a possibility for us – the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, in a world of unbelief!
How do I encounter the Lord today? Very easy – the miracles of my life: good health, my intelligence, beauty, friends, good weather, etc. Just as Jesus goes to the sea side to call the “the sons of Zebedee,” he calls us in the daily events of our lives – the little miracles we enjoy, provided we can still believe that miracles still abound today!
Assignment for the Week
Write down the events of your life and those of your loved ones you consider miraculous or opportunities to encounter the Lord like Isaiah and Peter.