07 February 2010

07 Feb 2010, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading I
Is 6:1-2a, 3-8


In the year King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above.
They cried one to the other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory!”
At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook
and the house was filled with smoke.

Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

He touched my mouth with it, and said,
“See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”
“Here I am,” I said; “send me!”


Reading II
1 Cor 15:1-11 or 15:3-8, 11


I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.


or

Brothers and sisters,
I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one abnormally born,
he appeared to me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.


Gospel
Lk 5:1-11


While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening
to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply,
“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.

Meditation: Luke 5:1-11

When was the last time God got your attention?


Think back to the last time you found yourself almost speechless because you had come face-to-face with some manifestation of his love, his power, or his majesty. How did it happen? Did a passage from Scripture leap out at you and pierce your heart? Was it through the beauty of a spectacular sunrise? Was it in the birth of a baby?

In today’s readings, we see three different ways God spoke to his people and changed them. In the Gospel, we see Jesus blowing Peter away through a large catch of fish (Luke 5:5-8). The first reading tells how Isaiah was cut to the heart by a vision of God’s heavenly throne (Isaiah 6:1-4). And in the second reading, we hear how Paul received the gospel both through personal revelation and through the testimony of the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). God speaks in so many different ways, but one thing is always the same: He wants to reveal himself to us.

On one level, the Bible is one big story of God revealing himself again and again to his people. It begins with Adam and Eve, and progresses through Noah and his family, to Abraham and Sarah, then on to David, the shepherd who became king, to Isaiah and the other prophets, then to a young woman named Mary. And it didn’t stop when Jesus came into the world. The New Testament is filled with stories like Peter’s and Paul’s, Lydia’s and John’s, and so many others. And every one of them had a personal encounter with God that radically changed their lives.

With all this evidence, how can we doubt that Jesus wants to reveal himself to us? Even more importantly, how can we doubt that he wants to reveal himself to us today? At Mass today, or as you go through the day, keep your eyes and ears open. Jesus is everywhere. There is no place we cannot find him.

“Lord Jesus, what do you want to say to me today? How do you want to show yourself? Come, Lord, and open my heart that I may know your presence within me.”

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