1. Today we are celebrating the Fifth Sunday of the Ordinary Time,the last Sunday beforewe
start the Lenten Season from next Wednesday,the 10th of February, theAsh Wednesday.
The central theme of today’s readings is God's call to a person, and thepositive response to
this call, which leads the person to a total commitment in discipleship.God’s call described in
today’s scripturehas three steps : 1) therevelation of God Himself, or of Jesus’ identity as the
One sent from God; 2) the recognition and confession of one’s unworthinessand inadequacy
to receive this call; and 3) the word of reassurancefrom God, or Jesus, and a call to share in
his life-giving mission. Today’s readingsalso teach us that God has His own criteria for
selecting people to be His prophetsand ministers. Presenting thespecial calls, or as we call it,
“vocations”, of Isaiah, Paul and Peteras life-changing events, the readingschallenge us to
examine our own personal calls to conversion and discipleship, particularly as we are
preparing ourselves to begin the Lenten Season.
Isaiah in the first reading and Peter in today’sGospel express theirunworthiness to be in the
presence of God’s great holiness and infinite love, and Peter and Isaiah both immediately
receive their Divine calls. Today’s second reading describes thecall of another great apostle,
Paul, who judges himself to be unworthy of the name orthe call, as he was a former
persecutor of the Christians. It was by giving thesethreemen a strong conviction of their
unworthiness and of their need for total dependence on His grace thatGod prepared them for
their missions. The Second Vatican Council teaches us that we areall called to ministry by
virtue of our Baptism into Jesus Christ.
I still remember the day,when I together with my friend, Sunno went to know the result of
our interview with the then Bishop of Cochin, Bishop Alexander.As we were together in
attendng the lower grades of the Elementary Classes,and were togetherin assisting as Altar
Boys in the parrochial church,we both decided to apply for entry into the minor seminary as
aspirants for the formation of priesthood.After returning from the Bishop’s House, we both
felt very sad. I was selected for entry into the minor seminary, and my friend Sunno was
denied entry. Even today I do not know, why my friend Sunno, who was character-wise a
better boy than I was, was not selected by God.Even today it remains a mystery to me. It is
true that God alone makes the choice and selection.
Isaiah in the Temple, Peter in the fishing boat, and Paul writing to his beloved Corinthians—
what do they havein common? Each of this Sunday's three readings reflectson their personal
experience of being commissioned as servants of God. As different as thesethreesituations
are—a Hebrew prophet in the Solomonic Temple,a Galilean fisherman, surprised by an
enormous catch of fishes,and a Greek-writing Pharisee, reflecting on being a Christian
convert—the three scenarios havestartlingly similar elements.
Each of these men is confronted by an awesome manifestation of divine power.Isaiah of
Jerusalem has a vision that he can only call “seeing the Lord face to face.” Celestial beings
called Seraphim (literally “burning ones”) sing the praisethat we have incorporated into our
Eucharistic Prayer: “Holy, holy,holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is filled with his
glory!” Thus the prophet Isaiah comes to knowGod, not just as a local Near Eastern divinity
but as the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob,the One whoseglory is shown in all

2. creation. This becomesa major themefor this prophetand the successorswho speak in his
name: Yahweh, the creatorof all, is the redeemerof Israel.
For Peter, the awesome manifestation of the divine comes in the form of an amazingly
abundant catch after a night of fruitless toil. As in the wine-sign at the wedding feast at
Cana, as we read a couple of weeksago in the Gospel of John alone, a surprising abundance of
wine of a better quality follows obedient response to the command of Jesus.
For Paul, pondering his place in the transmission of the Gospel message,the awesome
experience was a vision of Jesus as risen Lord on the road to Damascus, aswe read in the Acts
9:1-19. As it was with Isaiah, Paul also encounters an unbidden divine vision of the risen
Lord.
In the presence of the divine manifestation, all three feel a profound unworthiness. “Woe is
me,” says Isaiah.“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!” Peter's reaction to the
titanic catch is to fall at Jesus' knees and say, “Depart from me. Lord,for I am a sinful man.”
As for Paul, when he reflects on his experience, he can only say, “I am the least of the
apostles, not fit and unworthy to be called even an apostle, because I persecuted the church of
God.”
In each case, whatfollowed that sense of unworthiness was a divine assurance and—the
biggest surprise of all—a commission. One of the “burning ones” touches Isaiah with an
ember and assures him that hiswickedness is purged. Then thefuture prophet hears the voice
of the Lord asking for a messenger.The amazed and kneeling Peterhears Jesus address him,
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” For his part, Paul found himself
drawn into a mission of surprising fruitfulness, amazingly effective among Gentiles rather
than among his own fellow Jews.When he alludes to this mission as he writes to the
Corinthians, he is compelled to say, “But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and hisgrace
to me has not been ineffective. Indeed,I havetoiled harder than all of them; not I, however,
but the grace of God that is with me.”
Clearly, in this pattern of the calls of Isaiah, Peter,and Paul, there is a messagefor all of us.
We who find ourselves blessed with a senseof divine presence inevitably feel a sense of
unworthiness in proportion to our sense of God's goodness and His infinite love for us. But
God does not allow us to stay there. He invites all of us to be his witness.
Peter's response to themiracle of abundance wasto protest that he is unworthy because he is
a sinful man.
In today's Old Testament reading,Isaiah is in the presence of God and is being called by God
to take a message to God'speople.Isaiah protestsand says "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a
man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts!".

3. Both Isaiah and Peter feel the magnitude of theirunworthiness. A seraph cleanses Isaiah lips
with a burning coal and Jesus has a cleansing word for Peter.
Whatever troubled theirhearts waslet go as God set them on a new course and empowered
them for new work in the kingdom.
Peter, James, John and others leave everything they have and follow Jesus. They dropped
everything they were doing, walked away from their possessions and families and followed
Jesus. In the days of Jesus, miracleswere also signs of divine power of which the true
importance lay not in the events themselves but in what they might signify. The evangelists,
Matthew and Mark recall the event and do not include the miracle of the fish catch. The
disciple's response is probably easierfor us to accept if we include the miracle but their action
is nonetheless an act of freewill made in faith and obedience to Jesus, which is evident from
their commitment to Jesus.
That, of course, prompts us to ask ourselves two questions, (1) what do we have to leave
behind to follow Jesus and (2) what have we failed so far to leavebehind to follow Jesus
faithfully.