All three readings last Sunday share a common theme, an experience of God’s majesty and power, a call to mission and conversion and the need for God’s grace and encouragement to accept the invitation.
In the first reading the Prophet Isaiah experienced a vision of God’s glory and thought he wass going to die as a sinner, because in those days especially, people believed that they couldn’t see God and live. When God calls us to do something great with our life, and being a Catholic is a something great, it is natural to feel one’s unworthiness. But the Lord purified Isaiah and gave him the necessary grace for his mission as a Prophet. He became one of the great prophets of the Old Testament and gave the people hope through his prophecies of the coming Messiah.
The second reading recalls St Paul’s feelings of his unworthiness to be commissioned by the Risen Christ to be an Apostle, having been a persecutor of the Church. But Jesus gave him the grace to change his life 360 degrees and to be a great missionary and Apostle above all to the pagan nations and to extend the Church to the ends of the known world.
In the Gospel, Jesus had been teaching from Simon Peter’s boat. He made use of the natural acoustics across the water. When He had finished preaching, Jesus told Simon to put out into deep water and to pay out the nets for a catch. But Simon Peter was a seasoned fisherman, and he knew there were no fish about. He replied:
Master, …we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.
Due to his humble obedience, they netted such a huge number of fish, that two boats were filled to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus saying:
Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man.
Simon Peter recognizing the power and majesty of Jesus was immediately aware of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. So, in Simon Peter we see faith and fear mixed in the man who would become after the Resurrection, the Vicar of Christ on earth. But through the power of God’s grace and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Simon Peter would be transformed and become the ‘rock of unity’ in the Church and a great martyr.
It is only when we acknowledge our nothingness and put our trust totally in the Lord that our apostolate can become effective and fruitful. This reminds me of story. In 1990 in Mexico, a wealthy executive and architect, Bosco Cortina, was kidnapped and the kidnappers were trying to extort a large amount of money from his family. They kept Bosco in a tiny three by one metre cell with no windows and no clocks. They piped in the same hour-long music repeatedly 24/7. The kidnappers would communicate with him only through written notes. After a short period of this, Bosco’s nerves were completely raw. Then they gave him a note, asking if he would like a drink, whatever he wanted. Bosco couldn’t believe it, a ray of hope dawned. He wrote down his favourite cocktail that he wanted. All he could think about then was the drink. He started to fantasise and dream about it and it became his idol. When they finally brought him the drink, he held it in his hands like a treasure. He smelled it, gazed at it. Then when he was about to take a sip, he heard a voice coming from inside him, but very clear and strong:
Give me the drink, offer it up.
He couldn’t believe it! Then he heard God’s voice again:
Offer me the drink.
He battled interiorly, then finally gave it to the Lord, pouring it out. From that moment, he began to recover his interior strength and prayer life. Eventually after about nine months in captivity, he managed to escape. He experienced a profound conversion as the result of his experience.
When God asks us to step out of the comfort zone and put out into deep water, He knows what he is doing. He will always give us the necessary grace to fulfil our mission. In the Divine Mercy Shrine at Lower Chittering, we have a quiet Adoration Chapel, where we can come before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. There, Jesus sees and knows us. A quote from the Song of Songs tells us that Jesus is looking at us “through the window”
…My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice (Song of Solomon 2:9).
The monstrance or lunette that holds the Eucharistic Host is behind a glass, and Jesus is truly, “gazing in at the windows”. When He looks upon a person, He sees their past, present, and future and He sees their heart and soul. Bosco’s life was changed when He heard the voice of God. We are all urged to have an encounter with Christ, above all through Eucharistic Adoration. As the lives of Isaiah, Saints Paul and Peter were transformed, through an encounter with God, He wants to transform our lives too, but we must seek the face of the Lord, through prayer and above all, through Eucharistic Adoration. If we give time to the Lord, He in turn lightens our burdens, refreshes us and gives us all the grace necessary to fulfil our mission.
Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever.