Sunday Reflection, February 4: Extraordinary Encounters

Scripture Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/020407.shtml
Isaiah 6: 1-2, 3-8
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
Luke 5: 1-11

Last month, we had a very enjoyable and engaging weekend retreat for some of the young adults who had participated in the Catholics on Call Young Adult Conference in August. We took time to share stories, pray together and talk about the dynamics of discerning God’s call in our lives. On Saturday evening, we viewed and talked about the movie “Romero.” Most of us had seen the movie before, but this time we consciously looked at it through the lens of vocation. Raul Julia does a masterful job in playing the character of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the bishop of San Salvador who was assassinated in 1980 by opponents who rejected his call to stop the oppression of the poor in El Salvador. The movie depicts the way in which Romero had to continue to grow in his own response to God’s call after he became archbishop. Accustomed to a world of books and to comfortable association with the rich and powerful, he has to struggle to recognize the plight of the poor in a country where the military is ruling with an iron fist. He does not seem like the best man for the job in this situation. But he listens to the many ways that the Lord speaks to him through a variety of people and events. Eventually, he becomes an eloquent spokesperson for justice in a country scarred by oppression. He becomes a voice for the voiceless. In our discussion of the movie, the young adults spoke about the importance of the witness of people like Archbishop Romero for their own discernment of a call to service in the Church.

All of us need the witness of other people in the most significant endeavors of our lives. We learn and profit from their experience. As people of faith, we need to listen to the stories of others who have lived as Christ’s disciples through the ages. The readings for this Sunday recount three stories of vocation. We are given insight into the call of God in the lives of Isaiah the prophet, the apostle Paul, and Simon Peter. You and I may think of these people as among the greats of our faith. They were part of the “Super Bowl of Salvation,” while we feel that we are just in the “minor leagues.” Yet these stories reveal real flesh and blood people who had to confront their own struggles in discerning and living out their call. We can listen to their stories and learn from their experience.

In each of these biblical stories there is a kind of pattern to the way in which these people experience God’s call. Each of them encounters the holy God who reaches down to touch their lives. They come face to face with the Holy right in the midst of their lives. For Isaiah, it is in the temple, where he has a powerful, life-altering vision of God that seems overwhelming. For Paul, it is his unexpected encounter with the Risen Jesus as he is traveling to Damascus, an experience he did not seek or even want. In the Gospel, it is Peter’s encounter with Jesus by the lake. Jesus comes to meet Peter and the others right in the midst of the ordinary events of work, on a particularly bad fishing day. Peter is able to see in Jesus something more than just another rabbi; he recognizes in him the presence of God.

For Isaiah, Paul and Peter, their encounter with the holy Lord makes them acutely aware of their own unworthiness, their sinfulness. Their first inclination is to draw back in fear. Isaiah thinks he is doomed because he, a man of unclean lips, has seen God. Paul considers himself the least of the apostles because he is painfully aware that he persecuted Christ’s Church. Simon Peter states it most directly: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” None of them feels like this experience should be happening to them.

But in each case the Lord does not overwhelm them nor does he turn away from them. He does not make them grovel in their unworthiness. Rather, the Lord reaches out to lift them up and to empower them. Isaiah’s sinful lips are purified; Paul’s blinded eyes are opened. And Peter hears just one simple response from Jesus: “Do not be afraid.” It is through their powerful, yet merciful and intimate encounter with the sovereign Lord that each of these three men of faith receives his call to serve the Lord. Each of them is sent to proclaim the Word of God and to give witness with his life.

There is much for us to learn from these three vocation stories. As baptized men and women, each one of us has been called by God to a life of holiness. And we have been sent forth by Christ to proclaim his Word and to give witness to the Gospel with our lives. When we open our hearts and minds to the presence of God He reaches out to touch our lives, too. He comes right into the midst of our lives, usually in very ordinary circumstances, sometimes in extraordinary and memorable ways. It may happen through our communion with Christ in the Eucharist, where we are privileged to encounter the real presence of the Lord in this sacrament. Or it may take place at another sacramental moment, like the celebration of reconciliation. It happens, too, outside of church in the midst of our everyday lives: trudging through the snow and reflecting on this vast, beautiful world; having a cup of coffee with a good friend with whom we can share our innermost selves; holding a child in our arms and marveling at the sight before us; sitting at the bedside of a loved one who is ill and praying for strength; asking the Lord for the guidance and wisdom we need to make an important decision about our lives.

In any one of these moments, and in many more, you and I may well experience the Lord who is holy touching out lives with his presence. When that happens we, too, may be tempted to draw back in fear, aware of our own fragility and sinfulness. We, like Peter, may want to say, “Depart from me, Lord, I am a sinful person.” Yet if we place our trust in him the Lord does not overpower us or turn away from us, leaving us there overcome by our weakness. The same words that Jesus addressed to Peter are spoken to you and to me: “Do not be afraid.” In those simple words is contained a profound invitation to trust.

As we celebrate the Eucharist this Sunday, each of us comes to the table of the Lord as one called by God. We share a common Christian vocation because of baptism. Each of us, too, is called to continue to discern the voice of God as he addresses us in the distinct circumstances of our lives. For some that call entails a life of service to the Church as a religious, priest or ecclesial lay minister. For others it is a call to marriage or the single life and to working for the reign of God in the wider world. The presence of Christ empowers us to respond to his call with trust and confidence. He says to each one of us, “Do not be afraid.”

Fr. Robin Ryan, cp