FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINAIRY TIME - C – 2022
v We are in the fifth Sunday in ordinary time
v The theme for this Sunday is the call, the vocation.
BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH
Chapters 1 through 39 of the book of Isaiah are attributed to the prophet called First Isaiah or Isaiah of Jerusalem or simply Isaiah to distinguish him from the other two prophets who wrote the other chapters.
Ø His oracles run from the
year 745 to 701 before Christ.
Ø From his knowledge of the
wisdom literature, his literary style so perfect and the context of his oracles
we know that he was a man with a good education.
Ø He was married to a woman
called “prophetess”; his sons had symbolic names 7,3 (Shear-jashub, which
means a rest will return); 8,3(Maher-shalal-hash-baz
– which means soon-to-looting-fast-to booty).
Ø He belonged to the Kingdom
of Judah
Ø His doctrine is based on the
conviction of the holiness and royal power of the God of Israel.
(6,1-13) The Holy One of
Israel is his favorite title for the God of Israel.
Ø The oppression of the weakest members of society is an offense to the holiness of Yahweh and thus Isaiah speaks very strongly in relation with social justice.
FIRST
READING – Is 6: 1-2ª. 3-8
This reading has a great literary and spiritual
beauty, we are going to meditate it slowly paying attention to all the
details
ü Isaiah situates this episode of his life
in a concrete context, the death of King Osiah.
ü He tells us that he saw the Lord seated
on his throne, and he describes in a majestic way all the elements of the vision.
ü He sees some seraphim, the angels considered
most fiery in the divine love, these angels cry to one another Holy! Holy!
Holy! The Lord of the universe, of the whole earth that, is filled with his
glory.
ü The temple is shaken with the sound of
these voices. Always, when the Bible narrates a manifestation or epiphany of
God it tells us how creation is moved in God’s presence.
ü Isaiah before the majesty of God,
acknowledges his sin, he acknowledges that he is a sinful man and thinks he is
doomed because he has seen the Lord who no one can see and continue living,
according to the faith of Israel.
ü A seraph purifies his lips with fire and,
he is told that his sin is now absolved.
ü Now that he is in owe before the vision, happy because his sins have been forgiven, he is ready to listen to the voice of God who says, whom shall I send? Isaiah answers, here I am, send me!
RESPONSORIAL PSALM - Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
R. (1c) In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises,
Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you
have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will
worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your
praises, Lord.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you
have made great above all things
your
name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you
built up strength within me.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your
praises, Lord.
All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
when
they hear the words of your mouth;
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD:
“Great is
the glory of the LORD.”
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your
praises, Lord.
Your right hand saves me.
The
LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake
not the work of your hands.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
·
This is a thanksgiving psalm, who has
invoked the Lord has been heard.
·
The author wishes that the powerful,
those in leadership, the kings and lords of the world acknowledge the Lord as
God, that they may see how immense his greatness, his ways, his wonders are.
·
The psalmist knows that God will protect
him, that the love of God stands for ever.
· The author ends saying “I am the work of your hands” thus Lord do not abandon me. Listen to me, O God.
GOSPEL – Lc 5:1-11
Jesus is preaching by the lake of Gennesaret[1], he sees some young
fishermen, Andrew and his brother Simon mending their nets to go fishing during
the night.
Jesus gets into a boat, Luke says that
this is Simon’s boat, and he asks him to put out a short distance to be able to
talk to the people that have followed him, because the crowd is so large that he cannot catch their attention.
When Jesus finishes to talk to the people,
he says to Peter to put out into deep waters and, lower the nets to catch fish.
Peter, expert fisherman, says that they have tried to catch fish during the night,
and they caught nothing. Peter knows also that the time to fish is at night,
not during the day, but he says to Jesus,
in your name I will lower the nets.
That act of humility of the fisherman
from Galilee won an extraordinary catch that Peter understands very well is not
normal, but it has happened by the intervention of that young teacher and
prophet from Nazareth.
And falling at Jesus knees he says,
depart from me because I am a sinful man. The encounter with God awakens in the
human being the conscience of his/her sin, present or past and moves the person
to give an answer like that of Peter.
Was this not the same reaction of Isaiah, Woe is me, I am doomed! Isaiah is purified by an amber from
the fire, Peter is purified by his confession and his humility before the words
of Jesus. Thus, he will hear these beautiful words
Do not be
afraid; from now on you will be fisher of men,” yes, Peter you will be the
fisherman, to whom the community of believers will look at and, will obey as
the vicar of the Teacher, who chose you and called you to follow him, and you
were faithful and followed him
Isaiah heard
those other words, whom shall I send? And he answered, here I am send me! The
Gospel tells us that Peter and Andrew and the friends from the other boat left
their boats and followed Jesus.
Have we left
our boats, whatever they might be and have we said to him: here I am, send
me!.
SECOND READING – 1Co 15:1-11
v Paul asks the community of Corinth to remember the
gospel he has preached to them, and that they continue to be faithful to it, on
the contrary they will have believed in vain.
v This gospel is the faith in the resurrection of
Christ, this is the heart, the essence of the Good News, the News that is so
surprising that, so many times we resist to believe to be truth, and we fall in
sadness and pessimism. Let us rise! Christs is alive!
v Paul says that Jesus, after his resurrection
appeared to Peter together with the twelve and later to 500 brethren.
v And sometime later he appeared to him, Paul, and he
adds that the grace of God has done and does everything in him, and it has not
been sterile in him
v Can we say that the grace of God has not been sterile in me ?
CLARETIAN CORNER
MOTHER FOUNDRESS
At this moment I saw our Lord Jesus Christ, I had him present in very special way. He had so much pain for the evil of the church, that it seemed as if his Divine eyes were bursting into tears, and told me sorrowfully: “look, my daughter, if with tears I would be able to renew the spirit of my church, I would shed tears of blood. Because I did not spare myself to shed all my blood for her creation, but I left myself as pledge and memory of my infinite love for her, for her conversion until the end of time. (Our Lord granted me again this vision for the following night during prayer).[2]
PADRE FUNDADOR
Whatever my parents or teacher told me or explained to me, I would grasp it perfectly, notwithstanding the fact that I was a very small boy. I didn't really comprehend the wording of the catechism although, as I have said, I could parrot it extremely well. Nevertheless, I can see now the advantage of knowing it by heart, because in time, without quite knowing how or adverting to it, those great truths that I had rattled off without understanding them would come back to me so forcibly that I would say, "Ah! That's what that meant! How stupid you were not to understand that!" Rosebuds open in time, but if there were no buds there would be no blossoms. The same holds for religious truths: if there are no catechism lessons, then there is complete ignorance of religious matters, even among those who otherwise pass for intelligent persons. How useful my catechism lessons and the advice of my parents have been to me!...[3]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Saint Anthony Mary Claret, AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Edited by JOSÉ MARIA VIÑAS, CMF Director Studium Claretianum, Rome. Claretian Publications, Chicago 1976.
PARIS, Venerable María Antonia.
Translation of the Autobiografía en Escritos. Estudio crítico, introducciones y notas por
el P. Juan Manuel Lozano cmf. Barcelona 1985.
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