Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This homily was preached by Fr Nicholas King SJ

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; I Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11

There are various possible reactions to holiness. I don't know if the children here present can spot it; young people often have good eyesight for that. There was a Jesuit in these parts, many years ago, who said of one of his brethren, “Yes – very holy; quite pathetic”. None of us thinks of ourselves as holy; or if we do, then we need to look carefully in the mirror. But we can all think of someone whom we regard as holy, but not necessarily pathetic. The idea of holiness surfaces in all three of our readings today.

The first reading tells the story of the call of the prophet Isaiah, who finds himself in the Temple, and very much in the presence of the Lord. He sees the seraphim, and hears their antiphonal cry, which we repeat (all too often without noticing it, alas) every time we go to Mass: “Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord of hosts; all the earth is filled with his glory”. The door of the temple shakes, the House is filled with smoke. If we are paying attention, we are filled with awe; but did you notice Isaiah’s reaction? He is overwhelmed with the certainty that he is doomed because, although he is a man of unclean lips and living among a people of unclean lips, “I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts”. However, he is cured, his lips touched with a burning coal (seraph); but then something very odd happens, and suddenly he sees things differently. He hears the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Now he has all the enthusiasm of a youngster: “Here am I! Send me!!” That is something the experience of the holy can do for us. And we do not need to think of ourselves as worthy of this experience. We pray, of course, for our young people who have gone out for their catechism class, that they too may experience the Holy.

This is what happened to Saint Paul, from whom our second reading came; Paul, although he never knew Jesus in life, reminds the Corinthians, some of whom refused to believe in Resurrection, of the terms in which he had preached the gospel in the first place. He lists all those who had experienced the holiness of the Risen Jesus; they are all disciples already, which Paul was not. But, he says, “Last of all, he appeared to me, as though to an abortion” (strong language from Paul). He is quite clear that he did not deserve it, because he had “persecuted the Church of God”. But that is the way it is; he simply could not deny that he had seen the Risen Jesus. And then of course, after this encounter with the Holy, he has a job to do, the same job as we have, who are equally unworthy. And the job is to preach the good news of Resurrection, and tell the whole world about his beloved Jesus. That took him the rest of his life; the encounter with the Holy can have that effect on us.

This is what we see happening in the gospel that you have just heard. Jesus just walks into the situation, without asking permission, and orders Simon to move his boat a little bit away from the shore; and then into deeper water, where he is to let down his nets. Simon Peter thinks he's crazy, but humours the lunatic. Somehow we're not surprised that they capture so many fish that the boat starts to sink, and they need the help of James and John to get the catch on board. At this point, Simon Peter realises what was happening, that he is encountering the holy. So he falls to his knees, and tells Jesus, “Get outta here! Because I'm a sinful human being, Lord”. Well, we are all sinful human beings, but even so there is a job for us to do; Isaiah had to tell the people about God, Paul in our second reading finds that he has to preach the good news of Resurrection. And somehow Peter has enough nous to address Jesus as “Lord”, which is a correct form of address to him. Now, along with the sons of Zebedee, James and John, Peter is told that instead of capturing fish, his job is now to catch human beings. This is a bit of a joke, of course; the All-Holy does after all have a sense of humour. That may be a bit of a relief for us.

At all events, it is the start of something very new in Simon Peter’s life. He and those two brothers are now embarked on something quite different: “they left their boats on the shore, abandoned everything. And they followed him.” They are still not completely holy of course, as on many occasions in the years ahead they got him wrong, and even betrayed him when the chips were down. And you will remember that Simon Peter denied that he'd ever heard of him. And they were all going to run away when Jesus was arrested.

So what about you? Have you had that encounter with the Holy? Have you felt that you were being called? And do you, perhaps have a job to do for the Holy One, a job that perhaps only you can do? If so, what are you going to do about it