The foundations of the threshold shook with the voice of the one who cried out, and the Temple was filled with smoke. I said: “What a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips…and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of hosts” then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in his hand a live coal…with this he touched my mouth and said: ”See, now this has touched your lips, your sin is taken away, your iniquity is purged.” Isaiah 6: 1-8
“Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
After he had finished speaking to the crowds from Simon’s boat, Jesus said to Simon: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” “Master” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.” They netted such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying: “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.”… But Jesus said to Simon: “Don’t be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.” Luke 5: 1-11
Today’s three readings, taken together, nudge me to ask myself: ”Just how comfortably does my faith in Jesus Christ sit with me?” The central characters of today’s readings are all presented as living their faith in God with conviction, purpose and determination, despite their being very much aware of their own sinfulness and inadequacy. Is there any substantial reason for our seeing ourselves as very different from Isaiah, Paul and Simon Peter? Why should our faith commitment be markedly different from theirs?
I dare to suggest that it is because we have created for ourselves a God of whom we are wary, even afraid. And if we have not created that kind of God for ourselves, we have sometimes allowed ourselves to be conditioned to be hesitant to accept that Jesus really did die for our sins, reflecting to us the boundless and ceaseless love of the God who loved us into life and whose forgiveness is not conditional on our unerring conduct. Yet, most of us have encountered retreat directors, preachers and high-profile religious leaders who have been intent on threatening us with the divine punishment that will be inflicted on us because of our sinfulness. Surely, we have to learn that God really does love us, does not get angry with us and is not bent on exacting retribution from us. God’s greatest act of love was to allow Jesus to be born among us as our brother, to go to death on the Cross to free us from our sin and to invite us to reflect the love of Jesus to our world.
The three central characters of today’s readings all self-identified as having had sinful histories. Isaiah lived during the latter half of the reign of Uzziah, King of Judah. Isaiah was from an aristocratic family and, in all likelihood, was destined for a career in the king’s court. Uzziah had ruled with justice, integrity and outreach to the poor and needy. Following the king’s death from leprosy, Isaiah, in grief, had gone up to the Temple to pray. At prayer, he had an intense religious experience during which he became aware of his own sinfulness. This was followed by the visitation of an angel who cleansed him from his sin by putting a burning coal to his lips. Isaiah then sensed that God was inviting him to be a messenger to waken up the world. In response he volunteered to be that messenger and walked away from a career in the world of royalty.
Paul had elsewhere confessed to a career of intensely bitter persecution of people who had given their allegiance to Jesus and the message he proclaimed. We know the story of how God’s Spirit brought Paul to his senses (See Acts 9: 1-9 and Galatians 4: 29). In today’s second reading, Paul states categorically: “Christ Jesus died for our sins.” He neither elaborates on this statement nor qualifies it. Paul proceeded to say how hard he had laboured to spread the message of God’s love personified in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The story of Simon Peter’s encounter with Jesus and the miraculous draught of fish has much for us to ponder. Peter had just come from hearing Jesus preach in Capernaum, witnessing him cure sick people, including Peter’s own mother-in-law and driving devils out of those who were possessed. After Jesus and his group had moved on to the Lake of Gennesaret, Peter readily agreed to allow Jesus to preach from his boat. What’s more, he did not object when Jesus, a carpenter by trade, asked him to move the boat to deep water and put the nets down in the middle of the day, a time when no fisherman of experience would dream of doing such. The extraordinary aspect of Peter’s words of compliance was that they echoed Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel when she accepted the invitation to become the mother of Jesus. Jesus’ request to Peter made no sense to an experienced fisherman, yet he replied with: “Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets” Parallelling those words was Mary’s reply to Gabriel when she was told that she, a virgin, would become a mother by the power of the Holy Spirit: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me.”
At the sight of the miraculous catch of fish, Simon Peter became acutely conscious of his own inadequacy and sinfulness: “Leave me Lord; I am a sinful man.” The clear message in these three readings is that neither God nor Jesus dwells on our sins. They both see the potential in ordinary, broken people for life-giving, servant leadership. In fact, none of us is capable of that kind of leadership until we are conscious of our own personal limitations and weaknesses. We must be convinced that we will be effective as leaders only when we are open to invite the help of those around us and that of God who never leaves us. And let’s not forget that the biggest obstacle to living and acting with faith in God is fear. In fact, fear is the direct opposite of faith. If we believe that our God is angry, occupied with counting our mistakes, we are really living in fear. God is love and we will live in fear until we let God in.
