First Reading - Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8 ©
Responsorial Psalm - Psalm
137(138):1-5,7-8 ©
Second Reading - 1 Corinthians
15:1-11 ©
Gospel Acclamation – John 15:15
Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 4:19
The Gospel of Luke 5:1-11 ©
(NJB)
Listen!
Trust in God, who leads us on the path to humility, as Jesus did when he showed us the way.
Remember this.
God made us free, do not expect God to take sides in our struggles with one another, or intervene in our affairs, all such hopes are hubris, they are vanities and they miss the mark.
Listen to how the teaching of the apostle is presented to the church; be mindful of the inconsistencies, there are lessons to be learned in each and every one.
Know this.
The Gospel does not bring salvation (not in the ultimate sense), it does not bring salvation inasmuch as it announces it.
The formula of the good news is not: Believe so that you can be saved.
It is: Believe, have faith, you are saved already.
The good news for us, here in this world is the fruit of living well, of living justly in communities that care for one another, as Jesus taught us to do.
The Gospel is fulfilled in this world in communities that are bound together by love and trust, by people who hope for the promise that Jesus proclaimed and which belongs to those who have the courage to follow the way.
Jesus followed it to his death, it ended in his torture and murder and being hung on the cross, but that was not the end of him; he continued, as we all will, he was raised from the dead, for death had no claim on him…the same is true for us as well, God made us for eternity.
Jesus defeated death and the powers of sin, and now death has no claim him, on us either; more importantly, it never did, because the work God did not begin on the Cross, or with the resurrection, but before creation, in the beginning with the Word itself, from and through whom the universe comes into being, by and in whom the universe exists.
Jesus did not die so much “for our sins” but because of them, and he was raised in accordance with God’s plan, to bear witness to God’s love and mercy, for all people, even an executed criminal such as him..
Do not hesitate to correct the apostles and the saints, or the doctors of the church when they are wrong…they are often wrong.
The apostle was wrong when he said that Jesus died for our sins.
Let me repeat!
He did not die for our sins, he died because but because of them. He was buried according to custom and entered into eternity according to God’s plan. When he appeared, after his death it was not first to Cephas and then the Twelve, it was first to his mother, and the other Mary’s who never left his side, even when all of the disciples, including Cephas, had betrayed him, denied him and fled.
This is one example among many pertaining to the errancy of scripture; Paul, or whoever was posing as Paul, withheld the truth when they were writing this letter.
A Christian must always be a servant of the truth! Being always careful not to confuse humility with pride, which is easy to do for a believer, especially those whose aim is piety.
When you here a Christian proclaim “I am the least,” what they often mean is, “I am the greatest.” They will say…”my work was not the greatest because the great work I did was really God’s. It was God was acting through me.” What they mean when they say this is that they will strike you down if you challenge them because their authority is the same as the authority of the creator…and this is wrong.
It is dangerous thinking, a mode of thought that is never far from the halls of power, in the church and apart from it.
Be mindful of the Gnostic implications at the beginning of this reading...they are a trap.
The author issues a claim to power and authority that is out of step with what the Church ultimately came to hold as true. It says that salvation is dependent on what a person believes, and this is a lie…our salvation is dependent on the love of God and the love of God alone, a timeless love without condition, one that emanates from eternity and promises to make all things well in eternity.
The reading for today says that what we have been taught to believe comes in an unbroken line of authority beginning with Jesus (and therefore God), it promotes the idea that such a pedigree is the benchmark of true doctrine...but this is false. There is no unbroken line of authority, there are only us sinners, doing our best to discern the will of God, and each of us failing in the special ways that are unique to us, some of us more than others.
Consider the Gospel reading for today and know that the greatest commandment is love, that love is the whole of the law. To love one another, to give of one’s self to another, there is no greater gift. The love that we are called to is not the love we call desire, though to desire and be desired is an experience of great joy. The love that we are called to is not the love that we have for family and friends, though that love, which we experience as belonging, is a source of great comfort. We are called to move past the love we have for family and friends, because to love in that way is only a short extension of the love we have for ourselves. We are called to move past the love we call desire, and that love by which we see ourselves in the faces of our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, the love that connects our ambitions to the ambitions of our friends. We are called to love in a greater capacity than that. We are called to love to the point of selflessness, to love even those who are against us, to love our enemies, to forgive those who have hurt us and done us harm, to feed the stranger and protect them…and to do so out of love.
Remember this.
When you have discerned that it is God who is calling you, then you must obey.
Consider the gospel reading for today; set aside the notion that Jesus used some magic powers, that he performed a miracle to fill the nets with fish, when earlier in the day there were no fish to be found. This is not a story about fishing, and there is no such thing as magic. This is a story about moving beyond boundaries, reshaping context, exceeding expectations, and organizing the work of one’s partners in ministry.
In the first paragraph we see Jesus teaching in a crowded place. Does this mean that the crowds following Jesus were so great that they pushed him into a boat? Possibly, that is a common interpretation…but consider for a moment that Jesus and his followers were preaching in a crowded field, in a place and time filled with many voices contending for the attention of the people, and that the ministry Jesus was concerned with was not an ordinary ministry. Jesus was actively involved in changing the expectations of the people, he did that skillfully by drawing them outside of their context, and this was illustrated dramatically by his stepping into a boat, leaving the shore and teaching from a place that was detached from the normal mode of living.
Jesus skillfully leads his closest followers into this new mode of teaching, as a result their efforts, which had earlier met with failure, were now manifestly successful. By going beyond their boundaries they were able to engage more people through ministry than they were normally able to. Because of their success, they needed to call for more support, their work required them to train more teachers.
In the final paragraph we here Simon-Peter asking Jesus for forgiveness on account of him being a sinful man. It would not have been a sin for Simon-Peter to have been incredulous at the notion that Jesus would teach them a thing or two about fishing, if it was actual fishing that they were doing; because Simon-Peter was a fisherman, and the son of a fisherman, whereas Jesus was the son of a carpenter. Doubt is not a sin, especially when the expressed doubt is in regard to the expectation of a miracle or the workings of magic; that is not doubt, it is common sense.
When Simon-Peter was asking to be forgiven for his sins it was an acknowledgment that his former way of seeing things, of viewing people and understanding relationships, was rooted in a mode of consciousness that was rooted in fear, prejudice and privilege; it represented a way of life that was sinful, and Simon-Peter was right to seek forgiveness for that.
His desire to be forgiven was an acknowledgment of his previous failures, like Isaiah before him, who approached the divine reality in a spirit of shame, needing first to be healed before he could serve the divine as a messenger of salvation. His submission is an indication that he understood something of the new way that Jesus was leading him toward, and proof that he trusted Jesus in spite of his ignorance.
First Reading - Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8 ©
'Here I Am: Send Me'
In
the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord of Hosts seated on a high
throne; his train filled the sanctuary; above him stood seraphs, each one with
six wings.
And
they cried out to one another in this way, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
Hosts. His glory fills the whole earth.’
The
foundations of the threshold shook with the voice of the one who cried out, and
the Temple was filled with smoke. I said:
‘What
a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live
among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord
of Hosts.’
Then
one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in his hand a live coal which he had
taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. With this he touched my mouth and
said:
‘See
now, this has touched your lips, your sin is taken away, your iniquity is
purged.’
Then
I heard the voice of the Lord saying:
‘Whom
shall I send? Who will be our messenger?’
I
answered, ‘Here I am, send me.’
Responsorial Psalm - Psalm
137(138):1-5,7-8 ©
Before the angels I will bless you, O
Lord.
I
thank you, Lord, with all my heart:
you have heard the words of my mouth.
In
the presence of the angels I will bless you.
I will adore before your holy temple.
Before the angels I will bless you, O
Lord.
I
thank you for your faithfulness and love,
which excel all we ever knew of you.
On
the day I called, you answered;
you increased the strength of my soul.
Before the angels I will bless you, O
Lord.
All
earth’s kings shall thank you
when they hear the words of your mouth.
They
shall sing of the Lord’s ways:
‘How great is the glory of the Lord!’
Before the angels I will bless you, O
Lord.
You
stretch out your hand and save me,
your hand will do all things for me.
Your
love, O Lord, is eternal,
discard not the work of your hands.
Before the angels I will bless you, O
Lord.
Second Reading - 1 Corinthians
15:1-11 ©
I Preached What the Others Preach,
and You All Believed
Brothers,
I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you
received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save
you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you – believing
anything else will not lead to anything.
Well
then, in the first place, I taught you what I had been taught myself, namely
that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was
buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the
scriptures; that he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next
he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of
whom are still alive, though some have died; then he appeared to James, and
then to all the apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as
though I was born when no one expected it.
I
am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I
hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what I am, and the
grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I, or rather the
grace of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but
what matters is that I preach what they preach, and this is what you all
believed.
Gospel Acclamation – John 15:15
Alleluia, alleluia!
I
call you friends, says the Lord, because I have made known to you everything I
have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 4:19
Alleluia, alleluia!
Follow
me, says the Lord, and I will make you into fishers of men.
Alleluia!
The Gospel of Luke 5:1-11 ©
They Left Everything and
Followed Him
Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of
Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God,
when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out
of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was
Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down
and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he had
finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your
nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and
caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had
done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear,
so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them;
when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon
Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a
sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the
catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were
Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is
men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left
everything and followed him.
A Homily – The Fifth Sunday in the
Ordinary Time (Year C)
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