Scripture:
Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
Reflection:
Here I am Lord; Send Me
God’s invitations, callings, or vocations give unity to our Sunday readings. Can we look at the familiar in a less familiar way? What might the women in these readings hear?
How does God speak to me as he does to Isaias? Where and when have my eyes seen the Lord of Hosts? We don’t live a plan given to us to follow; rather, we receive an invitation from our loving God. In our mutual relationship with God, we discover our uniqueness and God’s self-revelation to us. The poem by George Herbert, ‘Love III’, begins, “Love bade me welcome” and despite unworthiness and objections to this welcome, we hear the final words, “…so did I sit and eat.” The gift of love prevails. Who would not respond as does Isaias, “Send me!” Send me to do that errand… to take care of that need so you won’t have to do it…how can I help you?…”. Every woman whose gifts bring order, hope and life to the lives they touch can hear, “sit and eat”. Thank you for all the preparations, now sit with me and find strength and peace.
We know that Jesus and the apostles were accompanied during the ministry in Galilee by the ‘Women of Galilee’. After Luke names the apostles he then names some of the Women. These will be the privileged women who carry the news of the resurrection. We can imagine women among those at the lake listening to Jesus and seeing the miracle of the fish, even hearing Peter’s response to Jesus. The fishermen left their work and income to follow Jesus, some women responded equally. On the shore of the Lake where the village of Magdala stood there is a newly built church named, “Put Out Into the Deep”. Entering the church is a rotunda with eight pillars bearing the names of the Women of Galilee. Of these two are blank, for the unnamed women, another for the women of today who continue to minister to Jesus in the needs of those around them. The pillars form a circle with life giving baptismal font of the church in the center. How exciting and beautiful to be baptized surrounded by the Women of Galilee!
The Apostles were sent forth to preach and cast out demons. They returned anxious to share their experience with Jesus, and he called them together to rest and reflect. But the women whose vocation, like their love, was spread out and more personal, must have ministered to women who met and heard Jesus on his journey. In the society of that time the men apostles would not have counseled women. No, women shared their experiences and questions with other women. Jesus must have been just as interested and pleased at the personal ministries being done among the Women of Galilee in the midst of many other ordinary things, as he was with the apostles successes.
And Paul today, “I am what I am”, and this by the grace of God. It is Paul who calls out the equality between male and female, who places a new Church in the hands of a woman. Lydia, a wealthy dealer of cloth, who contributes her weaving and business skills to the weaving together of the church in the community of her city of Philippi.
God invites us to a mutual dialogue. We experience God’s self revelation and see our uniqueness before God. Here I am Lord. Thank you for delighting in me.
Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.