5’th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel Bullet Points (First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-2a,3-8/Second Reading: 1 Cor 15:1-11/Gospel Luke 5:1-11)

• When Isaiah, Paul, and Peter received the call, they all felt unworthy. Isaiah responded: “Woe is me; I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips.” Paul felt so unworthy of the call because he persecuted God’s people. And Peter, with bent knees, proclaimed his unworthiness:” Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
• The biblical pattern that emerges from the three readings seems to be this: First, God takes the initiative in inviting people to serve, to minister. Second, those called express a sense of personal weakness and inadequacy. Third, there is an experience of being touched. Fourth, there is the divine reassurance of God’s strength and protection.
• The initial feeling of personal unworthiness could signify an authentic call. Feelings of worthiness, competence, self-righteousness, and superiority could be a sign that a person has not known the true God.
• The more we accept our sinfulness, the closer Jesus comes to us. When a person acknowledges his sinfulness before God, God reaches out and absolves the sinner and renders him competent to serve God.
• Today, the Lord still needs messengers—men and women—to proclaim the good news. If we feel unworthy and incompetent for the work of God, know that God can use even the most unworthy and insignificant. God can write straight with crooked lines. All that remains for us is to rely on God’s power take the risk and say: “HERE I AM LORD. SEND ME!”