Each of the Scripture readings for today contains a call narrative. In the Bible, call narratives are what the name suggests, an account of how God calls a person for a specific mission and how that person responds. In the first reading, Isaiah sees a vision of God's holiness. He realizes his own unworthiness and yet God still sends him forth to deliver his message.
As the saying goes, God does not call the equipped. He equips the called. We are not expected to be perfect before we can respond to God's call in our lives. We need to respond wherever we are in our spiritual journey. Then, if we fully submit to God's will, he will give us the graces we need to carry out what he wants us to do.
In the Second Reading, the Apostle Paul alludes to his conversion on the Road to Damascus. Paul was a contemporary of Christ, but he never encountered Christ during his earthly life. He took note of Christianity only as the community of disciples began to grow after Pentecost.
The early Christians did not see themselves as belonging to a new religion different from Judaism. On the contrary, they saw the faith as the true fulfillment of the Jewish tradition. But Paul thought otherwise. He saw Christianity as a fundamental threat to everything he stood for as a devout Jew.
He became an accomplice to the murder of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. He then actively rounded up Christians, most likely causing them to be killed as well. But despite everything, God called him for a special mission of service. As he was traveling to Damascus, where he planned to arrest more Christians, he saw a blinding light and heard the voice of Christ. His encounter with Christ was so profound that he abandoned everything else to follow the Lord.
Paul's case is foundational to the history of Christianity. When Paul encounters Christianity, Christ has already died, risen, ascended into Heaven, and has sent the Holy Spirit to the Church. While Christ is very much present in the world through the Church, he is no longer walking the earth as he did during his earthly life.
And yet Paul has a personal encounter with Christ and becomes his follower. In following Christ, he does not just seek to emulate his example, as we might do with someone who had led an exemplary life. Neither does Paul merely seek to base his life on the teachings of Christ as we might do in the case of a great thinker. He does much more. He comes to worship Christ, making him the organizing principle of his life.
Paul's conversion is the model for all of us. We shouldn't just try to emulate Christ's actions or to follow his teachings. We are to go far beyond that. We are to worship Christ as our Lord and Master, as the center of our existence. God might use us for great things or we might just lead a quiet life. The only thing that matters is that we make Christ everything. Out of our complete surrender to Christ will flow all that we need to do in life.
In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, we see that Peter's life is also fundamentally transformed by his encounter with Christ. He is a humble fisherman who does not lead a glamorous life. In this passage, he has just finished a night of unsuccessful toil, catching nothing. However, he trusts Jesus and does what Jesus requires of him.
St. Peter is an example for all of us. We often do not understand why God is calling us to do something. But our task is not to understand but to do. We should submit humbly, trusting that God will show us in time what his purpose is.
Peter also models detachment from the outcome of our work. After catching nothing all night, he obeys Jesus in casting the net into the water. When his work suddenly results in wild success, he does not focus on the material results or the glory that it might give him. Instead, he leaves everything behind and focuses on Christ alone. We might be tempted to worship the result of our work or the adulation we might receive through our success. That is how some very gifted workers for God have fallen, succumbing to pride and losing the graces they had been given. We must have one focus and one alone - to worship Christ.
But, we might say, it was easy for Isaiah, Paul, and Peter. They had clear directions from God. We are usually not given such clear instructions. How can we discern God's will in our lives? I would suggest six principles.
Prayer: The first step is to open our hearts and minds to God through prayer. We cannot hear his voice in our lives if we don't take time to listen through quiet prayer.
The Sacraments: The fullness of Christ’s grace comes into our lives through the Sacraments. We should eagerly receive all the sacramental graces that we can access given our particular life circumstanced.
Fasting: Catholic tradition has always regarded the act of denying ourselves the enjoyment of physical food and drink as fundamental to our spiritual growth. By fasting, we refocus, reorder our priorities, and leave room for God to speak to us.
Avoiding sin: Sins are actions that take us away from God. We must flee from even the smallest things that could cause a rift between us and the Lord. If we hope to hear his voice in our heart, we must orient our lives toward him.
Submission: We should submit to God through an open-ended prayer, as Christ prayed during his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed for the cup to pass away from him, but he submitted to the will of the Father. Following Christ's example, whenever we pray, we should end our requests by saying: Your will be done.
Praying to Our Lady: In the Scriptures our Holy Mother showed her complete obedience and submission to her Son. As Mother of the Church, she has one goal - to help all of us experience her Divine Son's infinite love. Let us therefore pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary to help us submit fully to the will of Christ, so that we can love him fully and live in his love for all eternity.
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The readings for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C are:
Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8
Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 or 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 11
Luke 5:1-11
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Ancient style boat on the Sea of Galilee (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.