Homily for 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Feb. 6, 2022
Luke 5: 1-11
Is 6: 1-8
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

(by Henri-Pierre Picou)

“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5: 8), Simon addresses Jesus, overwhelmed by the apparent miracle in which he has just been a participant.  In the presence of God, all-holy and all-powerful, mortal men and women shrink.  God told Moses, “Man cannot see me and live” (Ex 33:20), to which the Jerusalem Bible adds this note:  “God’s sanctity is so removed from man’s unworthiness that man must perish if he looks on God.”  Perhaps you remember what happens to the Nazi villains in Raiders of the Lost Ark when they open the ark of the covenant, while Indiana Jones and his girlfriend turn away and are spared destruction.

We know instinctively that we are—like Isaiah in the 1st reading—“unclean” (6:5), unworthy to stand before God.  Before holy Communion at every Mass, we proclaim, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.”  Truly, we are unworthy because, like Simon, we are all sinners.  In his Eucharistic presence, we might well say, with Isaiah, “Woe is me, I am doomed!” (6:5).

Yet in the Bible how often God addresses people, or his angel does, telling them not to be afraid, as Jesus says to Simon today (5:10).  If God doesn’t call sinful human beings to be his associates, his companions, his apostles—whom can he call?  Only the Virgin Mary is sinless.  The God of Israel wanted to send prophets, so he had to call sinners like Isaiah.  Jesus of Nazareth wanted to send apostles to “catch” human beings, so he had to call sinners like Simon the fisherman and his companions.

It’s even so today.  Christ’s Church is full of sinners—not just those who make scandalous headlines, but people like you and me.

There’s a saying that probably comes from our evangelical brethren:  “God doesn’t call the qualified.  He qualifies the called.”  God doesn’t call saints but transforms sinners into saints, as he made a great prophet out of Isaiah, as he made a great apostle, Peter, out of Simon the fisherman, as he did also with Saul, who “persecuted the Church of God” and was converted into the great apostle St. Paul, as we heard in the 2d reading (1 Cor 15:1-11).

We aren’t worthy to receive our Lord Jesus in holy Communion—except that his grace makes us worthy—“only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”  Sometimes people excuse their absence from Mass by telling me that if they dared enter church the roof would fall in.  No.  Jesus tells us there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just people who don’t need to repent (Luke 15:7).  Regardless of our past history, our mistakes, our faulty character, our sins, by Baptism, by the sacrament of Reconciliation, by his daily forgiveness of our sins, Jesus Christ ennobles our souls and makes us his own beloved sisters and brothers, Christian saints.

The power of Christ’s grace helps us to lead holy lives in whatever state of life God has called us to:  to lead holy lives in marriage as spouses and parents, like Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin (the parents of the Little Flower and her sisters) and St. Gianna Molla and her husband (who’s still alive); to lead holy lives as adolescents like St. Dominic Savio, Blessed Carlo Acutis, and Blessed Chiara Badano; to lead holy lives as single persons like Ven. Margaret Bosco, who raised 3 boys including St. John Bosco after being widowed at age 29; never-married layfolk like Blessed Albert Marvelli, who worked for social and economic justice in Italy during and after WWII; and divorced people too; to lead holy lives as priests and religious, too, thanks be to God!

Yes, it’s good, it’s necessary, that we be fully aware of our sinfulness, our unworthiness of Jesus; not to despair, to think we’re doomed, but to be ready for his call to grace, his mercy, his forgiveness, his invitation to follow him and “catch” others for him by the good example of our Christian lives.