FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2025)
Readings:
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalms 138:1-5, 7-8
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
Today’s liturgy provides us with a commentary on what happens when we open wide our hearts to the loving God. In our first reading, the great prophet Isaiah recounts his calling to be the ambassador of the Most High, a role which gives him the authority to boldly call out his fellow Jews for straying far from what God expected of them. The vision of the Lord enthroned in glory stamps an indelible character on Isaiah’s ministry and provides a key to understanding all of his message. The majesty, holiness and glory of the Lord took possession of his spirit and, at the same time, he gained a new awareness of human pettiness and sinfulness. This could only have happened with Isaiah’s cooperation. Isaiah was overwhelmed by the enormous abyss between God’s sovereign holiness and human sinfulness, something all of the major Old Testament prophets had a keen sense of. Only the purifying ember of the angelic seraphim could cleanse his lips and remove his wickedness, preparing him to answer God’s search for someone to send to the people and get them to repent. With the eagerness of someone whose heart has been touched by God, Isaiah can answer: “Here I am, send me!”
Isaiah reminds us that genuinely holy people are not so confused that they imagine themselves to be perfect. Indeed, with the exception of Mary, God does not require perfection for us to be ministers of God’s word. Only with an awareness of our own sinfulness will we come to recognize the wondrous nature of the God we worship, and be ready and willing to do whatever God asks of us.
As this was true of Isaiah, so it was true of the author of our second reading from Paul. Paul possesses somewhat of an inferiority complex because he was not truly an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry. Not only that, but as he acknowledges in first Corinthians, he “is not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Like Isaiah, Paul has a keen sense of his sinful past, and the Scriptures (Acts) point to him as standing by while the first martyr Stephen was stoned to death by an angry crowd. It is God’s overwhelming “grace” which gives Paul the right to proclaim himself as an apostle, regardless of how “abnormal” his calling might appear. Paul claims no credit for having “toiled harder than all of them” who came before him, for “it is the grace of God that is with [him]” that gives him the power to preach the gospel so “effectively.”
Today’s gospel begins with Jesus asking Simon (Peter) to use his boat that He might preach to the crowds a short distance from the shore. A chapter earlier in Luke, Simon’s house is the scene of Jesus’ second miracle, when He cures Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. While there is no sense there of how important a figure Simon will be in the Jesus story, that is about to change when Jesus borrows his boat. When Jesus finishes speaking to the crowds, He makes an unusual request of Peter: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon, no doubt, had been fishing his entire life, but this itinerant preacher’s only skill besides teaching had more to do with carpentry, a skill taught to Jesus by his earthly father, Joseph. Simon’s answer to Jesus indicates a slight surprise that the “carpenter’s Son” would be telling him how to fish. Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but (with great reluctance, no doubt) at your command I will lower the nets.” Much to Simon’s surprise, “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.” So full were both boats with fish that the boats were in danger of sinking. Luke’s gospel is clear that this marks a real change for Simon, for when Simon saw the number of fish, “he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Simon would never look at Jesus the same way as before this incident. When human beings are confronted with the holiness of God, their sinfulness is exposed. The huge catch of fish was great, but the real blessing for Simon was having his eyes opened to his own sin, and at the same times seeing Jesus for who He truly is. This is subtlely conveyed by Luke by changing the words he uses to address Jesus. Simon moves from calling Jesus “Master,” to calling Jesus “Lord,”a very definite messianic title. Simon’s importance in Luke’s gospel will grow exponentially, and he will leave his life as a fisherman, and will follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
As Christians who make every effort to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we too must truly be aware of our own sinfulness, for only when that happens can we recognize our need for Jesus and the redemption that He offers us. We, too, must move from ‘Master’ to ‘Lord,’ recognizing in the itinerant preacher the very Son of God, the long awaited Messiah. When through the Spirit, God asks of us something, even something that might at first seem foolish (like casting out nets into the sea), we must trust in God. Our instincts and inclinations have been distorted by sin, we do not see things as God sees them, and our understanding can be flawed. That is why we depend on an almighty God who is all knowing and can accomplish what seems impossible.
We begin every Mass we celebrate with the acknowledgement that we are sinners, not to be depressing, but rather to understand how dependent we should be on the One we call ‘Lord.’ If we obey the Spirit speaking within our hearts and souls, if we obey the Lord we worship in faith, then our vision of Him, praise for Him, trust in Him, and experience of blessings from Him will grow. We begin acknowledging our sinfulness, we move to shouting about our God, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts,” and we end by sharing in the very Body and Blood of that Lord – what a marvelously generous God we worship.
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