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The countercultural virtue of a disciple!
This weekend’s liturgy of the word presents three of the greatest witnesses in the Bible possessing a quality that is quite ‘unpopular’ in our progressive culture namely ‘declaration of worthlessness’. In the first reading, Isaiah receives a vision of heaven itself. The Lord is seated on a high and lofty throne. The Seraphim angel choir is crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” He has a vision of heavenly liturgy. And Isaiah reacts with shame. “My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts! But woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.” In response an angel swoops down with a burning coal to cleanse his lips! He is doomed, alright, but doomed to be made clean through suffering, to be made able and willing to be a messenger of God most high.
In the second reading St. Paul says that Christ appeared to him last of all, as to one born abnormally. “For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Unworthy, yes. But the grace of God transformed him to be a great apostle even though he never met Jesus in person except in visions.
In the Gospel story Jesus tells Peter, James, and John to fish in the deep water (where they had been fishing and fishing and fishing all night with no result). We should remind ourselves that Jesus was an expert carpenter, and his fishing crew are expert fishermen. Without warning, their nets are bloated with fish. Peter cries out, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
The real reaction of all three figures is not really shame, which means concluding that they are each worthless. Instead, it is a finding of their true place in reality. They are expressing a kind of humility! Each of them is forced to compare himself directly with the presence of God. When people meet the holiness of God head-on, they are therefore able to glimpse by contrast the humanness in themselves. None of them can any longer pretend that they shine like the stars because they see the real star bursting with light or like a little flashlight on a bright sunny day. Experience of God let them understand that they are little, but still God wants them. A falsely supposed importance cannot make us holy. But God can make us holy.
We can be proud to be unworthy if reception of God’s love is a result. At Mass, we echo that famous Roman centurion: “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed” (Mt 8:8). God reaches out and fills the humble with courage, strength, and purpose and often a miracle of abundance.
The fisherman in Simon Peter understood the message very quickly. He tried and failed though he chose the right time and location for fishing. When confronted by the size of the catch, he recognized the presence of God before him and became convinced of his own pride and self-centeredness, that is, of his sinfulness. We find the same response in all three readings today. In each instance, the recognition of unworthiness marks a turning point in the speaker’s life and becomes the model for our own response to God. With Peter, Jesus seized this opportunity to proclaim the fisherman’s mission (a mission that included the rest of the disciples), a call Peter was able to receive because he had seen the tremendous power of God. Thus, Peter became the first person in the Gospel to acknowledge his sinfulness. He is also the first apostle to be called by Jesus. Today’s Gospel concludes with an inspiring image of commitment and the spiritual miracle “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:11). What is holding you back from a total ‘yes’ to God?