Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time C

February 10, 2013


Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8
Responsorial Psalm: 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
Reading II: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 or 15:3-8, 11
Gospel:Luke 5:1-11



The Heart of the Matter


Our little Maltese x Shitsu gets burrs in her coat when she ventures into the wrong kind of grass. I've had them too, anchored tightly by their tiny hooks in my jumper or in the hair on my arm. Hard to get out. This reply of Peter's is that kind of burr: "Get away from me: I'm a sinful man, Lord."

I don't think the accent here is on our general fear, nor on our need to trust in providence. There is another episode telling of their fear in a storm on the lake. The fear on this occasion was not of ordinary things. They witnessed a miracle, they saw a sign, and in their deep selves they knew this preacher, this healer, this holy man was singling them out, and Peter's first thought was of being not worthy of his favour.

The gospel presents this episode as a crucial step in the development of Jesus' work, the choosing of a team to work with him in proclaiming god's word. The lectionary sees it this way and gives us the Isaiah passage where the prophet saw a vision of the Lord, and said to himself:

“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!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it, and said, 
“See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”
 
And the awesome sequel: 

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”
“Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

*****

In the gospel Peter is established as the key figure, and as the sinner, both here and in the great betrayal on that last dreadful night. As I understand the text, they were all stupified at the catch of fish, but Jesus addressed Peter when he said: "Do not be afraid: from now on you will be catching men."

During the week my wife, Sue, was starting to read again Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter, and we had a go at translating the epigraph from Peguy that Greene used to foreshadow the argument of the novel and to explain perhaps the title:

         "Le pécheur est au coeur même de chrétienté…. 
Nul n'est aussi compétent que le pécheur en matière de chrétienté. 
Nul, si ce n'est le saint.

"The sinner is at the very heart of christianity...
Nobody is so competent as the sinner is in the matter of christianity.
Nobody, except perhaps the saint."
                                
Curiosity led me to search out the original text from which Greene chose these phrases. (1) Peguy writes almost with excitement, repeating his idea in different form over and over as if he were arguing against a very stubborn opponent. The paradox suited Greene’s penchant for
investigating the mystery of sin in the midst of holiness. I wonder is it of interest still? 

*****

As I see it,  the consciousness of being sinner is the source of that great fear that holds us back. How can a person of unclean lips utter god’s word of salvation? At the approach of god we are afraid.

It is a fear of reverence and awe, a healthy and a holy thing. Sometimes unfortunately it is lost in some of those who are ordained or commissioned to proclaim god’s word. Without that fear they can become, as Brian has reminded us above, bullies, self-righteous, self-confident and self-blinded.

At the approach of god we are afraid. Yet if we do not trust the Jesus when he says: ”Do not be
afraid,” we will never say yes to god, never open our own hearts to the spirit who gives new life, never offer ourselves in proclaiming what we believe, never share our hope nor give our love. We will remain imprisoned in the darkness of uncomprehending blind shame.

I might have saved my time and yours, patient readers, had I referred at the start to a review by David Schutz of the film Les Miserables. You can read it here: 

http://www.cam.org.au/News-and-Events/Features/General-Features/Article/14098/Film-of-the-Year-of-Grace#.UR
ZpdB3C1lx

Do not be afraid,

tony

******

  (1) What makes one to be or not to be christian is not, not at all (understand me well) that
     one is more or less sinner. This is quite another question, an infinitely different debate.
     The distinction is of another kind. The sinner belongs to christianity. The sinner can make
     the better prayer... The sinner if an integral part, an integral piece of the mechanism of
     christianity. The sinner is at the very heart of christianity.

          The question of being or not being a sinner, or rather the question of being more or less
     sinner - (everyone is sinner) - has absolutely nothing in common, we might say has
     absolutely no point of contact with, the question of being more or less christian, and of
     being christian or not being so. This is another question, a debate of a totally different
     order. And one of the most serious mistakes that one can make regarding christianity is
     to confuse the two, one of the mistakes that shows best, and most acutely, that you do not
     understand, that you are not with it, that you do not know what you are talking about.
     That you are totally incompetent. That you are a total stranger. Nobody, on the other
     hand, is less a stranger, nobody as competent as the sinner in the matter of
     christianity. Nobody, except perhaps a saint. And in principle it’s the same person...

          Someone who is not christian, on the other hand, someone who is not competent in the
     matter of christianity, who is a stranger to it, is the one who is in no way a sinner,
     literally the one who does not commit any sin. Literally the one who is a sinner, who
     commits a sin is already christian, and by that very fact christian. One could almost say
     he is a good christian. 
        (Charles Peguy, Un nouveau theologien, Gallimard, 1936)