Homily for February 8, 2004
Year C - Cycle II
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. John Carney
Topic:  Relying on God's Strength
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First Reading: 
Isaiah 6:1-8

"In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple.  Seraphim were stationed above.  They cried to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!  All the earth is filled with his glory!'  At the sound of their cry, the frame of the door shook and the house 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!'..."

Second Reading: 
I Corinthians 15:1-11

"...For I am the least of the apostles, not fit 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.  Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me..."

Gospel Reading: 
Luke 5:1-11

"While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to 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 short distance from the shore.  Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.  After 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 command 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 to help them.  They came and filled both boats so that the boats 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.'..."

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I love these readings.  There’s a great similarity between the experiences of Isaiah, Paul and Peter.  Each began with a base of faith.  Obviously, those are three great names in the Scriptures, and we can learn a lot from them this morning.  They each began with the same gift of faith that we have, of course, and then they received a sign.  Isaiah was placed in the presence of God.  Paul received a very dramatic sign as well.  En route to Damascus to persecute the Church, he was knocked off his horse and blinded.  It took a lot to get Paul’s attention.  Peter received many signs.  In today’s Gospel, he received the great catch of fish.  All three of them also responded similarly to this wonderful sign of God.  Most dramatically, perhaps, in Isaiah’s case.  Here’s Isaiah in the presence of God, and what does he say?  “Woe am I!  I am doomed.  For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.”  So they had foul language twenty-six hundred years ago as well.  That was his response.  In the presence of almighty God, Isaiah recognized how weak he was, how sinful he was, how unworthy he was.  It was the same thing with Paul.  Paul described himself in his first letter to the Corinthians as the least of the apostles; one who had persecuted the Church, not worthy of being called an apostle.  Then, finally, Peter, like Isaiah, says, after he sees the miracle, he realizes who he has here.  And he says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.”

All three of them confessed their sinfulness in the presence of God’s holiness.  They were cleansed by that confession.  Then God was ready to use them, as he did in a mighty way…Isaiah, Paul and Peter.  But they had to go through that step.  They couldn’t bring Christ their gifts and say, “Here I am, use me” - not until they confessed their sinfulness, their unworthiness, and their weakness.  Their sinfulness humbled them; it didn’t cause them to despair.  But it put them in right relationship.  The acknowledgement of their sinfulness put them in right relationship with God.  By the way, one of the definitions of holiness is “to be in right relationship.”  So when you say, “Woe is me.  I am doomed.  I am a sinful man,” you are here and now holy, for that moment, anyway.   You’re in right relationship with almighty God. 

I want to talk about that a little bit this morning, especially from St. Paul.  Not so much in the first letter to the Corinthians, but in the second letter.  The Corinthians were interesting people.  Corinth was a cosmopolitan town, and had lots of different nationalities, lots of different people.  It was a little like America, I guess.  Lots of sin, lots of religions.  Paul converted the people of Corinth.  But in his second letter, he’s writing them chewing them out, because they had fallen away from his teaching, from his gospel.  As a matter of fact, he says in there, “If anyone preaches a gospel different from the gospel I preach, a curse be upon him.”  And so, Paul was being attached in his absence in Corinth by a group of new apostles that he refers to sarcastically as the “superapostles.”  They came preaching a gospel of self-reliance: that we have all the gifts we need to be successful, and that we’re good and holy of ourselves. 

After baptism we are God’s children, which we agree with, but they went further.  They were suggesting, in effect, that after baptism, you’re God.  And of course, we know that’s not the case.  And so, these superapostles attacked Paul.  He was losing his credibility among the Christian community.  They attacked him for a number of reasons, scriptural scholars believe.  First of all, it appears, there’s evidence to indicate that Paul was ugly.  There’s no other word for it.  He was feo.  He did not have a good appearance.  Surprisingly, it appears too, that Paul was inarticulate.  He didn’t speak well.  Now, of course, we know he wrote well.  Even among non-Christians, Paul’s literature is quoted; some of it is so beautiful.  And all of it was challenging.  But apparently he was a very poor speaker.  He also may have had some disease or something that made him unsightly.  So, they were attacking the ugly-looking dude Paul who didn’t speak well.  And so, how does he defend himself?  Well, how do you defend yourself when someone attacks you?  “You know, so-and-so was talking about you the other day and do you know what he said?”  “Oh, yeah!  Well, ….  Well, ….  Them…!”  Did you ever hear kids fight?  “Yeah?  Well, you’re stupid!”  “You’re stupid!”  “You’re stupid!”  Well, adults do the same thing, except we use bigger words and semi-colons.  If someone attacks you, you just get right down there so you can look them in the eye, get low enough, and you fire back.  That’s the way we are. 

But not Paul, interestingly.  To defend himself he says, “I won’t boast except about my weaknesses.”  He says, “A thorn in the flesh was given me, to keep me from being too elated (too haughty; too proud).”  “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’  I would rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ might dwell with me.  Therefore I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  He says that God even gave him something to keep him humble.  “A thorn in the flesh.”  We don’t know what that is.  Some speculate it was a physical problem, they think perhaps malaria, or perhaps epilepsy.  After the last Mass, someone said it was gout – if you’ve had gout, you know what “a thorn in the flesh” is.  I’ve had gout.  There were no prescriptions back then to help Paul.  There was some evidence he was going blind, and that may have been the thorn.  I don’t know.  Having said that, I personally think it was a sinful issue.  I suspect Paul had some temptation that he was dealing with, that he was struggling with, because it kept him humble.  And if you know you’re a sinner, if you know you’re weak, you’re not going to get too haughty are you?  You not going to be condemning everyone else when you know you’re far from perfect.  In any case, God gave him that, or permitted Satan to, as the Scripture says, he permitted Satan to give this “gift” to Paul to keep him humble. 

When Isaiah, Peter, and Paul relied on their own strength, they failed.  When they admitted their weakness and accepted God’s strength, they succeeded greatly.  So, there’s a paradox here, and this paradox is essential to understanding what a Christian is.  If you embrace your weakness, then God can strengthen you.  If you claim to be strong, he can’t.  If you experience your emptiness, he can fill you up, with himself.  St. John says in his Gospel, “Unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.  But if it dies, it produces much fruit.”  The paradox is that unless you experience your spiritual poverty, then, and only then, can God enrich you.  That’s the paradox of Christianity.  Look at the crucifix.  That’s the ultimate symbol of weakness.  We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God and God himself, gave himself up to death.  He became weakness; he became sin for us, the Bible says.  Now, that’s a paradox.  The Greeks thought it was foolishness, according to the Bible.  But, unless we understand that about who we are as Christians, we will never begin to fully live the Christian life.  And the reason is simple.  Where we are so full of ourselves, there’s no room for Christ. 

You know, you’ve only got so many square meters in that soul of yours.  If it’s full up with you, there’s no room for Christ.  He’s trying to get in there, but we won’t let him.  And sometimes, we are too impressed with ourselves, with our intelligence, our accomplishments, our discoveries, our successes, our victories, our power, our wealth and prestige.  None of that impresses God one bit.  What have you ever discovered that God didn’t already know?  And sometimes we act as if we are better than others.  You can hear that in parents.  I’ve never heard a parent brag about their son the garbage man.  But, why not?  We need garbage men as much as we need popes.  Right?  What difference does it make what your child does with his or her life, as long as that work is honest and noble?  But we have this pecking order.  We determine what’s better than other things in life.  And God tells us that is not to be with us. 

Oftentimes it takes a disaster to knock us off our pedestal.  Our parish is working with an architect; his name is Jake Rodriquez, from Santa Fe.  The Renovation Committee has worked with Jake for about a year.  The first time I met Jake, I was impressed with his goodness.  There are some people who are just good.  They just kind of reek of goodness; of holiness.  I don’t know what it is.  But Jake just has this goodness about him, and I could see that he didn’t have an agenda.  He just wanted to help us.  I knew he was going to tithe 10% of his fees back to us.  I liked that.  And as I got to know Jake over this past year, I learned that he had received a heart transplant.  As a matter of fact, we met with him last Thursday, and he said last week his heart had a birthday.  He’s forty-seven, but, referring to his heart, he said, “She’s fifty.”  A woman was killed, I think in an accident, and gave her heart to Jake.  And so we were talking about that, and Jake said, “Every day I get up, it’s a gift.  I know how vulnerable I am.  I know how weak I am.  I know there’s a very small distance between me and eternity.  And I’m not worried about it.  I can only rely on God, because only God is worth relying upon.”   A simple lesson.  I think Jake Rodriquez was a very good man before he had his heart transplant, but now he has the beautiful heart of a woman, and he’s a very great blessing to everyone.

Yes, we’re weak.  We’re vulnerable.  And when we admit that, and understand it, then Christ himself can fill us with his power, and with his goodness, and with his holiness.  Now, if you are suffering at all from any arrogance, or haughtiness, or pride, get off your high horse, before God knocks you off it, like he did Paul.  All of us are a little guilty, at times, of that, of pride. 

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come.

‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and Grace shall lead me home.