Texts taken from the “On Your Word” Missalette January-February 2022

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
1st week, psalter week

FIRST READING

From the book of the prophet Isaiah (Is 6:1-2a, 3-8)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; the edges of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim were stationed above him; each of them had six wings. They cried out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is full of his glory.” The doorposts shook at the sound of that cry, and the temple was filled with smoke. Then I said: “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew toward me; in his hand was a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it and said: “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” 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!”

Commentary on the first reading

Isaiah is undoubtedly the most important prophet of the Old Testament; he is the author of the biblical book most frequently quoted and commented on in Judaism. In the Old Testament, he is what Saint Paul is in the New. Therefore, to speak of God so profoundly and universally, Isaiah “needs” to have an extraordinarily powerful initial experience, as Paul later would on the road to Damascus. What happens to him? He is in the temple praying when he suddenly “sees” the Lord; that is, he has a magnificent and at the same time dramatic experience of God's majesty. Faced with such a sight, the prophet feels lost, but God, in order to grant him the power to speak of him appropriately, immediately comes to his aid, and a seraph angel (a word that in Hebrew means “burning”) touches his lips with a live coal to purify his speech. From that moment on, the prophet will have words of fire. Ultimately, it is the same for us Christians: when the Lord touches our lips (think of Holy Communion), divine flames enter us, and God can use our humanity to speak to people in his name.

SECOND READING

From the first letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15:1-11)
I proclaim to you, brothers and sisters, the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the message I preached to you. Unless you have believed in vain! For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. On the contrary, I worked harder than all of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Commentary on the second reading

The apostle must not invent anything to make the Christian proclamation more pleasant and attractive: he must simply transmit the truth of the facts. And the truth is this: Christ died for our sins and rose again to open the kingdom of heaven to us. This is the most important and primary thing to announce to everyone; then come the consequences, namely, how we must live in order to share in the Lord's death and resurrection (the teachings of the moral life). Morality without this foundation helps no one; on the contrary, it can be discouraging, and someone could always object that they have a better morality. We, however, act according to the Holy Spirit, and we can do so because Jesus died on the cross and rose again for us. We must not be afraid: Saint Paul is a great sinner - he says so himself very humbly - but he believed and went into the world to tell everyone that Jesus had saved him. This is the whole Gospel: God with us, God for us, God in us. The truth, which is Jesus, precedes charity, establishes it, and creates it. There is no other Savior of the world apart from Christ.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 5:1-11)
At that time, while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he 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 lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your word I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

Commentary on the Gospel of the day

A great miracle and sign convinces Peter that the man before him is not just anyone, a teacher like the others: the fish multiply miraculously in the sea (this multiplication of the fish preceded that of the loaves), and Peter immediately surrenders. Faced with Jesus' holiness, the Galilean fisherman senses his infinite distance, just as Isaiah did six centuries earlier: “I am doomed because I am a sinner.” This humble confession pleases the Lord, who reassures Peter and draws him to himself: “Do not be afraid.” In itself, sin should annihilate us, but if we are humble, the Lord is always ready to forgive. We must never be afraid. Indeed, there is more: besides closeness to the All-Holy One, there is also the task one receives: to work for him, to be his collaborators. What a great reward! “God does you a great honor,” wrote Divo Barsotti, “not when he gives you something, but when he asks you for something.” Yes, because if he asks, he asks us to be like him: fishers of people for heaven, sharing in his divine mission. With him along the roads of the world, with him also on the cross, to be with him in glory. We must never be afraid, truly never, if we are with Jesus.