5th Sunday of Year C, 2019

May the Lord give you the grace to respond to your call to witness to the death and resurrection of Christ in the ordinariness of your life, family, and in carrying out your civic responsibility, especially in the upcoming elections.Happy Sunday +John I. Okoye

Doctrine and Faith

(Isaiah 6, 1- 2a, 3-8; 1 Corinthians 15,1-11; Luke 5,1-11: 5th Sunday of Year C, 2019)The reading from the prophet Isaiah is an autobiographical report of a visionary experience he had during a liturgical celebration held in the Temple. The God of Israel is depicted as supreme among all other gods, since only the mightiest would be sitting on the throne of heaven. The glory of God fills the entire earth and overflows into the Temple like the train of a royal robe. Seraphim, supernatural beings are stationed in homage. The very name is associated with burning flames, hence it is fitting that one of them should participate in the purification of the prophet. The threefold acclamation of praise, Holy, Holy, Holy, is a way of expressing superlative. There is no god as holy as the God of Israel. God is extolled as Lord of hosts, a reference to armies or military regiments. The heavenly hosts were those supernatural beings that first fought on the side of the deity and, once the battle was won, surrounded the divine throne as guards. The contrast between God’s holiness and Isaiah's uncleanness causes him to cry out in despair. It is not by accident that it is his lips rather than his eyes or his hands that are cleansed. He will, after all, proclaim the word of the LORD. Now purified, he is ready to offer himself for that ministry. This visionary experience of Isaiah both purified him and invited him into a life of service of God, an invitation he accepted with enthusiasm. This last verse shows that Isaiah was not, merely, a passive observer of the vision. In the end, he was an eager participant.

This second reading contains one of the earliest creedal statements. The proclamation that Christ died is itself a statement of faith, for it identifies the historical Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed one of God. Added to this is the declaration that his death was substitutional expiation; he died for our sins. Finally, his death was in fulfilment of the Scriptures. Thus the creed of the Christian community is rooted in Israel’s tradition. The creedal statement maintains that Jesus was raised by the power of God, that he did not raise himself. This happened on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures. No one saw him rise; they experienced him as risen. He appeared, not merely seen by others, but manifested himself; the initiative was his. In a sense, it is the appearances that witness to the truth of the community's faith claims. He appeared to several groups of people and lastly to Paul who likened himself to an aborted fetus, one that was rejected from the womb and not ripe enough for a normal birth. Though once a persecutor, by the grace of God, he now toils harder than all the others. 
The scene of today’s gospel story is Gennesaret. It is the fertile, heavily populated area at the northwestern corner of the lake known as the Sea of Galilee. In the gospel reading for this Sunday the name of this district is ascribed to the lake. In his first encounter with Jesus Simon first calls Jesus Master (epistates, a word that is probably an equivalent to "rabbi". Simon uses this title after Jesus has taught the crowd on the shore from Simon's own boat. Later, Simon, the experienced fisherman, follows Jesus' directive and is astounded by the yield of fish it brings. This causes him to prostrate himself before Jesus and to address him as Lord (kyrios), a title that combines the elements of power and authority. Simon and those who are with him have a theophanic experience, a recognition of the divine power at work in and through Jesus. They are filled with astonishment or fear, to which Jesus responds in a characteristic manner: Do not be afraid (cf. Luke 1,13,30; 2,10). Usually when there is such an experience that fills the recipient with fear, the words of assurance are followed by some kind of commission. This suggests the commission is the point of importance, and that is the case here. Jesus does not provide these fishermen a remarkable catch merely to cancel the frustration they experienced in an unsuccessful night of fishing. The miracle became an acted-out prophecy revealing both his own mysterious authority and the ministry to which they are being called. Jesus declares that a turning point in their lives has been reached. The commission states: From now on. . .! Those who have made a living by catching fish are told that now they will cast a different net, one that will catch women and men. Jesus their Lord gathered crowds around him-men, women, and children who came to be captivated by his powerful words. From now on, if they will but follow the directives he gives them, regardless of how they might initially question them, they too will gather in hearers beyond number. The verb for catching (zogreo) is in the continuous tense, indicating a habitual practice. The astonishment of the fishermen turns to commitment. They leave everything-the incredible catch, their business (they were partners), the stability of their homes, families, and neighbourhoods and they followed him (akoloutheo suggests spiritual allegiance or discipleship). 
The first and the gospel readings for this Sunday are call narratives; the epistle contains a statement of the faith that undergirds our response to our call. The call described today is more than a summons to faith; it is a call to ministry. Isaiah is called in order to be sent; the fishermen are called in order to gather others to Jesus. So it is with us. Our call is not merely to a life of personal holiness lived in union with God. As important as this might be, we are called by God to be sent out to the world. Our covenant with God is not a private affair; it is a communal reality. We belong to the People of God; we are members of the body of Christ. The faith has been handed to us, and we in turn hand it on to others. As life transforming as this call may be, it comes to us in the ordinariness of life. It may come to us in our place of worship if we minister in the Temple as Isaiah did. It will usually come to us as we wash our nets or our dishes, as we teach or raise children, as we prepare a brief for trial or examine a patient; as we repair cars or work at the computer or as we collect our PVC (permanent voters card) and listen to politicians campaining. The call of God comes to us in the ordinariness of life. This may sound scandalous precisely because of its ordinariness. However, God calls wherever the people are to be found, and if that means during the plowing, that is where the call of God will be heard. On the other hand, such a view sanctifies what might otherwise be deemed merely ordinary. The incarnation means that God took on human flesh and blood, human existence, human experience. The incarnation implies that God uses ordinary people, places, and things to reveal the extraordinariness of God. When we realize this we too will be able to cry out: It is the Lord! Our first and most fundamental service is to witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus. He died, he rose, and he lives on. This is the message that must be announced. This is the gist of Paul's instruction to the Corinthian community. It is the basis of all other ministries. We are called to proclaim the message of the resurrection by every means possible. Some, like Isaiah and the disciples of Jesus, will witness in open and dramatic ways. They will teach and preach;  nurse the sick and care for the elderly. Others will witness in less conspicuous ways. They will insist on fair practices in their own workplaces; they will weed out expressions of prejudice and violence so that a new and just world can be fashioned for themselves and their children. So that, in the ordinariness of their lives, they will witness to the death and resurrection in that very ordinariness, thus transforming everything into extraordinariness. Happy Sunday ws