5^th Sunday in O.T. (C); 02-06-2022

Is 6:18.  Ps 138.  1 Cor 15:1-11.  Lk 5:1-11

Deacon Jim McFadden

                        One of my spiritual heroes is the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who once wrote that Christianity without discipleship is cheap grace.  He walked the talk as he sacrificed his life in his resistance to the Nazi regime during WWII.  Bonhoeffer did so because he understood that the essence of Christian spirituality is discipleship: that is, a positive response to the call of Jesus, which is undauntingly straightforward:  “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 16:24).  Remarkably, what all three of our readings today remind us that this call is given despite or even because of our personal unworthiness.  These readings will help us to recognize and accept our unworthiness, and to be prepared that Jesus will intrude himself into our  lives in which we will be called to share in his Mission.

            In the first reading we have the majestic vision of Isaiah, who finds himself in the presence of the Lord.  Isaiah is overcome by great awe and a profound sense of his unworthiness.  But a seraph, which is kind of an angel, purifies his lips with a burning coal and wipes away his sin.  What happens next? Isaiah is “good to go!”  Feeling ready to respond to God’s call, Isaiah eagerly exclaims, “Here I am Lord.  Send me!” (Is 6:8).  You can just sense the eagerness in his voice.  At the same time, notice the sequence: God, via the seraph, took the initiative and intruded himself into Isaiah’s life despite his unworthiness.

            This same succession of feelings and unfolding of events is found in our Gospel in the episode of the miraculous catch of fish.  Asked by Jesus to cast their nets although they had caught nothing during the night, Simon Peter trusts in Jesus, and he and the other disciples obtain a superabundant catch.

            Notice Peter’s reaction, which is similar to that of Isaiah.  “When Peter saw this, he fell to his knee and said ‘Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Lk 5:8).  Peter’s reaction may seem strange at first.  We might have expected a simple, “Wow, did you see what I just saw?!” But, he says instead, “Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  In the face of God’s miraculous action and the presence of God in the flesh of Jesus, Peter acknowledges his own sinfulness and unworthiness to become a follower of Jesus.  Well, so what?!  That is a given—we’re all sinners, which does not preclude Jesus entering our lives uninvited and calling us to discipleship. 

            Let’s look at the Gospel reading more closely to illuminate this theme.  Notice that Jesus climbs into Peter’s boat without asking permission.  He doesn’t wait for Peter to “get his act together”, but simply commandeers this vessel that is central to a fisherman’s life and commences to give orders.  This represents something of enormous importance: despite our unworthiness, grace will invade our lives!

            Though God respects our relative independence and the exercise of free will which we saw in Genesis 3, God is not in the least bit interested to leave us in a “natural” state in which we go about our lives doing what he choose to do in this time and in this place.  Instead, God really wants to live in us, He wants to marry his people in which the “two shall become one” (cf. Gn 2:24; the Wedding Feast of Cana, Jn 2:1-11).  Jesus, the Word made Flesh, is the Lord of the Universe, which means he wants to become the Lord of our lives, moving into our minds, wills, bodies, imaginations, nerves, and bones: to the very fiber of our being!

            This commandeering of nature by grace does not depend upon our worthiness; nor does it involve the compromising of nature but rather its perfection and elevation.  As St. Thomas Aquinas succinctly and sagaciously put it thusly: “Grace builds upon nature (Gratia non tollit naturam, sed perfectit—ST, I, I, 8 ad 2)  When Jesus moves into the house of our soul, the powers of the soul are elevated to their full potential and are now properly directed to their end.  When Jesus comes into the boat of our lives, that life is preserved, strengthened, and given a new orientation which the goods of the world simply can’t do.

            This is signaled symbolically by the Lord’s directive to put out into deep water.  On our own, left to our own egoic ambitions and devices, we will know and live life within a very narrow range, seeking those goods and conventional values that appear within the horizon of our ordinary consciousness.  But, when grace invades us, we are enticed into deeper waters where “the two shall become one.” 

            Brothers and sisters, let us allow Jesus to “jump into our boat.”  Let us allow his grace to turn our lives around, to radically change us at the very core of our being.  Keeping our gaze on Jesus through persistent prayer, let us allow his amazing love and mercy he has for each one of us to permeate our lives.  And, as we receive His love, as His grace commanders our lives, our hearts will be converted and that we, too, will do what Peter joyfully did: “to leave everything and follow him” (Lk 5:11).  Amen.