WHOM SHALL I SEND?

V SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8

This Sunday’s readings give us two stories of vocation: the vocation of Isaiah and the vocation of Simon Peter. We can read them in parallel in order to discover the similarities and differences. In Isaiah, we are presented with a theophany, in which God manifests himself in all his glory. Like a king, surrounded by his entourage, God is seated in a high throne in his royal hall, while his praises are being sung. The words of that song have reverberated through the ages and we still go on singing them: 

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.

His glory fills the whole earth.”

As we sing these words, we must become aware that we are in communion with all the generations that came before us and we must sing them with the same sense of awe that filled the heart of Isaiah.

In the Gospel (Lk 5:1-11), everything happened in a simple way. Jesus is presented preaching the word of God and being surrounded by crowds, with the noise, the pushing and the tussling that always happen in such situations. Jesus seems lost in the middle of the crowd and, seeing two boats, he decided to ask for help. He entered into Simon’s boat, “sat down and taught the crowds from the boat”. Here, we find nothing of the glory contemplated by Isaiah. There, God was surrounded by his heavenly court; here, Jesus is surrounded by the most common people, mainly the ones who experience suffering and who look for healing and for salvation. In a way, Simon and his friends represent the whole crowd: they worked in vain, and now they feel tired and exhausted. They would go home empty handed, have a time of rest and then return to the same struggle, doing battle with the waves and the unpredictable sea.

When Jesus finished teaching, he ordered Simon to go out into deep water and to cast the nets for a catch of fish. Simon expressed his disappointment with the results of a night’s work but complied with Jesus’ request. And that brought in a big surprise, that filled him with awe and led him to an attitude similar to the one of Isaiah. In God’s presence and faced with His manifestation, Isaiah recognised his unworthiness. Being  “a man of unclean lips” and living “among a people of unclean lips”, he felt lost. Simon made a similar experience of being in the presence of the divine in a completely different environment, where the extraordinary emerges from the common and blends with the ordinary; and his reaction was the same: “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man”. In God’s presence, with his light piercing our hearts, we are made to see our sinful situation. The first reaction may be one of fear and unworthiness; however, that is always followed by a reassuring word. Isaiah was purified by the fire of God’s love and Simon heard Jesus’ comforting words: “Do not be afraid”.

Then, as if in need of help, God made a question which is at the same time a request: “Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?” Isaiah gave a clear answer: “Here I am, send me”. And he became one of the greatest prophets. Those words are being repeated and being heard today when there is a big shortage of messengers. How are we going to answer? Simon behaved like Isaiah. Jesus promised him and his companions that they would catch men instead of fish. “Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him”. Are we ready to follow him? Are we ready to become fishers of men? What is going to be our answer?