Word to the Wise
Sunday, February 7, 2016 - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Isa 6:1-2a, 3-8; 1 Cor 15:1-11 or 15:3-8, 11; Luke 5:1-11]Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am," I said; "Send me." [Isaiah]
Isaiah, Paul and Peter all receive a "call." All three of these calls seem to take place in dramatic circumstances. Isaiah's call takes place in a vision with God enthroned and angels crying out. There is an angel with a hot coal to purify Isaiah for his mission. Isaiah's response is quoted above. [I had those words printed on one of my ordination cards.] Paul's call on the road to Damascus is a familiar story. It is not recounted in the second scripture today, but Paul reflects on his call. Peter is called as a result of Jesus' using his boat and paying for it with a big load of fish! What all these "calls" have in common is the protest of unworthiness. These protests are not the polite protests one sometimes hears at award banquets. These three men were terrified by the circumstances. Their "unworthiness" becomes overwhelming in the face of the power that speaks to them, yet that power chooses them for better or for worse. As Paul puts it: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective."
Dramatic "calls" are not the ordinary way. The ordinary way is through our baptism. Those who enter the church through the RCIA process do get to experience a powerful grace. Those of us who are baptized as infants do not have that privilege. Our "call" is mediated to us through those who raise us. Sometimes the call is like the experience of Elijah and the still small voice. [That was my experience.] That voice can be insistent. It could be the call to marry and the voice may say, "Yes this is the one." it could be the call to full time ministry or religious life [my experience]. Isaiah's experience was an inspiration to me, but so is Elijah's. Then both sent me to a "burning bush" that was very insistent. Perhaps we could all do some reflection on how God's call may have led us to an important decision and way of life. AMEN
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