The Invasion of Grace!

(Homily 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. C)

      The three readings we heard today present three wonderful protagonists: Isaiah, Paul and Peter. In these three protagonists we are presented with stories that are similar in some aspects, and yet diverse in nature. However, in each case, we see a sense of unworthiness which is later surpassed with grace and forgiveness, and this led to their being called to participate in the mission for salvation. As we have seen, these three had an encounter or an experience of God, an overhauling experience that changed their life completely. It created in them a “before” and an “after”. Truly, this is what an authentic encounter with God should be. Therefore, for us Christians, our experience and encounter with the person of Jesus should cause a change in our lives. Similarly, there should be a “before” and an “after” in our Christian sojourn and experience. When God’s grace captures man, it leads him to the discovery of who he is and who he is called to be before God, the spiritual real and ideal self. Isaiah encountered God, confessed his unworthiness and received forgiveness. Paul encountered the risen Christ and received conversion. Peter encountered Jesus, recognized his unworthiness and sinfulness before his Master. What has changed in your own encounter with Him?

     In the first reading (Is. 6:1-2a. 3-8) we are told of Isaiah in his popular vision of God, where he discovered the greatness and holiness of God, and contrarily his own sinful condition. The vision of Isaiah, the propelling force of his prophetic vocation is well situated into history: the year of the death of King Uzziah. By means of the liturgical elements that Isaiah saw in the vision, he came to understand the holiness and transcendence of God. The greatness of God is identified in the image of the Lord of host seated on his throne. The encounter with God’s holiness, the mysterium tremendum, led Isaiah to confess his unworthiness. But after that overhauling experience of and with the divine, he responds “Here, I am, send me” (v.8). His call came as a miracle of grace; he received forgiveness for his sins and later was sent to go for us. In that bid, the emphasis of this passage today is on the call and not on the vision of God’s holiness, for the call of Isaiah is parallel to that of Peter in the Gospel passage and by extension to that of Paul in the second reading.

     The second reading (1 Cor. 15:1-11) presents Paul and his personal experience of the Risen Lord. St. Paul recounts his experience with the Risen Lord on his way to Damascus and the faith that he derived from it. He recounted the different appearances of the risen Lord, including the appearance to him, where he received his apostolic call. And indeed, he emphasized on the grace-character of his apostolic call. Paul affirms with vigor that Christ died and he has risen and he described the resurrection as a saving event. Therefore, for Paul Christ cannot be put aside, like any of the figures or personages of the past, this is still valid even for us today. For He lives on! In fact, Jesus himself declared: “I was dead and look – I am alive for ever and ever” (Rev. 1:18a).

     In the Gospel (Lk. 5:1-11) we see Luke’s collocating the call of the first four disciples, which Mark and Matthew reported at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus (Mk. 1:16-20; Mt. 4:18-22), unlike them Luke equally enriched the narrative with elements that renders it similar to the miraculous catch in John (Jn. 21:1-14). Thus, in the episode we see the experience of Peter, who was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, in an ordinary manner he had an extraordinary experience. Peter profoundly demonstrated what it entails to believe in Jesus and His words. Peter too was overwhelmed with stupor. Today Peter teaches us what faith and belief in Jesus entails. He teaches us how far we can go in believing in Jesus and His words. As a matter of fact, let us remember that the Lord has already called the disciples and they accepted to follow him, but it does appear they continued in their former activities and means of livelihood, mainly their fishing for a living. This represents the first stage of the call; at first they answered Jesus’ call without a total commitment. But in today’s passage Jesus upgrades the cost of discipleship, “henceforth you will be catching men”, “they left everything and followed him” (vv. 10.11). He invited them and us to the next stage of discipleship.

      Let us go back to the storyline once again, after Peter’s struggle and fruitless labor all over the night together with his friends, they adhered to the invitation of Jesus: “Duc in altum” (v.4) (Put down the net for a catch). Even though the invitation of Jesus was contradicting their experience as experts in the art of fishing, yet they acted on his words. Humanly speaking they know too well that it was quite difficult if not impossible to catch something during the day, when they did not catch anything at night; however they obeyed the words of Jesus and threw down the net. But notwithstanding, Peter wanted to help Jesus feel in their own shoes: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets” (v.5). This indeed is faith in action! Many a times, we seem to shiver in our trust like Peter. Sometimes we might have toiled and struggled a lot, with little or no result. Why? May be because we trusted only in ourselves and in our capacities alone, or may be God wants to test us. However, today Jesus invites each and every one of us to trust in Him, not to give up in our life struggles. May be in your studies, business or work you have toiled like Peter without success, today hearken to His words as He says to you “Put down the nets for a catch”. Therefore, do not give up, insist, persist, and continue to try for God has not given up on you. For this, St. Paul confirmed in the second reading “but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain” (1Cor. 15:10). Neither will His grace be in vain in our life, Amen!

     Let us try to situate ourselves in the position of Peter and his friends. After that experience of an unrewarding toil, what would you have done if you were in the shoes of Peter? May be you would have told Jesus: “You are joking, do you want to teach an expert like me? What do you know about the art of fishing? Listen, at this hour you cannot catch anything, point and black. Let us be”! But their reaction was quite different. His fruitless human effort did not push him to give up on Jesus. Beloved in Christ, no matter what you might be passing through today, do not lose hope, do not give up, and do not give up on God’s word. Little wonder, St. Paul vigorously proclaimed: “Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). Truly, He did more than Peter and his friends could imagine!

     Let us reflect deeper on some salient phrases arising from the episode. Just think about the magnificent response of Peter: “on your word I will let down the nets”. And Jesus appreciated the wonderful response of Peter with the miraculous catch, a blessing of the biggest catch of fish he ever had probably in his life. Indeed, the greatest appreciation was the invitation Jesus made to Peter to be his disciple, to proceed to the next stage of discipleship: “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men” (v.10). At this point, the Greek verb (psarévo) that was used to indicate the act of fishing changed, because “fish is fished for death”, but in Peter’s new mission of fishing men the Greek verb Zogréo (to catch alive) was used, because fishing men is for life. He has to catch them alive for the kingdom of God. In the words of Iraneus, “The glory of God is man fully alive”.

     In this passage, an important characteristic of one who wants to be a disciple of Jesus is indicated by the verb “to follow”. “When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him” (v.11). As such, a Christian above all, is one who follows a person: Jesus. The book of Apocalypse captured this vividly well when it talks about “following the Lamb wherever it goes” (Ap. 14:4). Another important verb is “to leave” qualified with the adjective “everything”. The fact of “leaving everything” delineates the radicality of the detachment and of the response. “To follow” Jesus therefore, involves two types of freedom: freedom from and freedom for, freedom from our sinful habits and freedom for the other and the Other. Little wonder, Peter and his friends from “fishers of fish” became “fishers of men”.  From this, we can see that the call of God opens up a new horizon, a mission ad and intra gentes. Another verb beaming with meaning in this passage is the Greek verb “kopiao” (to toil). This verb was used to indicate the struggle or the toil of the night fishing without success, and St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles will use the same verb to indicate the apostolic toil (cf. Acts.20:35). Therefore, there precedent toil was indicating the toil of their new mission.

     In all, another significant Greek word that tailored the density of this passage is “rhema” (Lk. 5:5), and Peter used this when he said to Jesus “on your word I will put down the nets”. Here, an attentive reader discovers that Peter used the word rhema instead of logos (because in Greek logos is word, rhema also stands for word but there is something more in it). Rhema means word-event, that is, to say that the word of Jesus is an event, it is not ordinary word like others. Therefore, the encounter with the word of Jesus (Word and Word personified) is an event that changes life. In fact, if we go to the Acts of Apostles (5:32), Luke used the same word which was translated in some languages as event, things or facts. Be that as it may, the word of Jesus as an event has to change our life and our mentality.

     My dear friends in Christ no matter what your present situation may be, remember always that an encounter with Jesus creates a before and an after. If you have toiled and struggled in your life without success, Jesus is telling you personally continue to try, even if your name has been identified with failure do not give up, for Jesus has not given up on you. He has come to raise us up with his presence and words. Above all, may our encounter with the W(w)ord of God expose and remind us of our poverty, our sinfulness and our nothingness. Peter is a living example, for when the mirror of God’s word appeared before him, he begged Jesus: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord”. But the Lord does not depart for He has come to empty our pride, mistrust, unworthiness and sin and to fill us with trust, humility and holiness! There is power indeed in His word!! Happy Sunday Friends!!!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)