Scripture:
Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 or 15:3-8, 11
Luke 5:1-11
Reflection:
Our God is Love. Sheer love gave birth to a material universe unimaginably extensive. This universe was to be populated by beings capable of knowing God, capable of loving God and being filled with the very life of God. God was and is so in love with the world and us human beings within it.!
In leading human beings to himself The Father would send his Only Begotten Son who would become truly human while remaining divine, "God so loved the world". He would not only save the world, but would do it through humans like ourselves.
That is what we hear in the reading from Isaiah and the Gospel of St. Luke. God seeks human leaders, human help.
Both Isaiah and Peter realize that no human is capable of being a partner in God’s love and God’s work of salvation. But both find out that can and does bridge that infinite gap. For Isaiah the sign is the burning coal, for Peter a catch of fish that nearly swamps two boats! There is a response. "Here I am. Send me."
That same Jesus is calling today for other Peters, other Fishers of Men.
Isaiah was at first fearful. "I am a man of unclean lips." Peter would say to Jesus: "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
Should the thought of being the Lord’s voice and heart cause you to want to hide, remember he who calls wills to sustain you. What you cannot do on your own, you can do easily in him who strengthens you. That can be priesthood, religious life. That can be exceptional service to God’s People in other capacities. Jesus may well need you to seek that which could be lost without you.
Fr. Fred Sucher, C.P. is retired and lives in the Passionist community in Chicago. For many years he taught philosophy to Passionist seminarians.