Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

First Reading

Isaiah 6,1-2.3-8

In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; his train filled the sanctuary. Above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings: two to cover its face, two to cover its feet and two for flying; and they were shouting these words to each other: Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth. His glory fills the whole earth. The door-posts shook at the sound of their shouting, and the Temple was full of smoke. Then I said: 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh Sabaoth.' Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in its hand a live coal which it had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. With this it touched my mouth and said: 'Look, this has touched your lips, your guilt has been removed and your sin forgiven.' I then heard the voice of the Lord saying: 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I, send me.'

Psalmody

Psalm 138

Antiphon

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

O Lord, you search me and your know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.

You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you.

Before ever a word is on my tongue
you know it, O Lord, through and through.

Behind and before you besiege me,
your hand ever laid upon me.

Too wonderful for me, this knowledge,
too high, beyond my reach.

O where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from your face?

If I climb the heavens, you are there.
If I life in the grave, you are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn
and dwell at the sea's furthest end,

even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.

If I say :'Let the darkness hide me
and the light around me be night.'

Even darkness is not dark for you
and the night is as clear as the day.

For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother's womb.

I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,
my body held no secret from you

when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw all my actions,
they were all of them written in your book;

every one of my days were decreed
before one of them came into being.

To me, how mysterious your thoughts,
the sum of them not to be numbered!

If I count them, they are more than the sand,
to finish, I must be eternal, like you.

O God, that you would slay the wicked!
Men of blood, keep far away from me!

With deceit they rebel against you
and set your designs at naught.

Do I not hate those who hat you,
abhor those who rise against you?

I hate them with a perfect hat
and they are foes to me.

O search me, god, and know my heart.
O test me and know my thoughts

See that I follow not the wrong path
and lead me in the path of life eternal.

Second Reading

1 Corinthians 15,1-11

I want to make quite clear to you, brothers, what the message of the gospel that I preached to you is; you accepted it and took your stand on it, and you are saved by it, if you keep to the message I preached to you; otherwise your coming to believe was in vain. The tradition I handed on to you in the first place, a tradition which I had myself received, was that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried; and that on the third day, he was raised to life, in accordance with the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas; and later to the Twelve; and next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still with us, though some have fallen asleep; then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. Last of all he appeared to me too, as though I was a child born abnormally. For I am the least of the apostles and am not really fit to be called an apostle, because I had been persecuting the Church of God; but what I am now, I am through the grace of God, and the grace which was given to me has not been wasted. Indeed, I have worked harder than all the others -- not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Anyway, whether it was they or I, this is what we preach and what you believed.

Reading of the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 5,1-11

Now it happened that he was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats at the water's edge. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats -- it was Simon's -- and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.' Simon replied, 'Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.' And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.' For he and all his companions were completely awestruck at the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. But Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.' Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed him.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Homily

The Gospel passage of Luke tells the call of the first disciples that occurs, differently from the parallel passages of Matthew and Mark, after Jesus was already quite famous. The evangelist speaks of a large crowd that throngs around Jesus to listen to "the Word of God." It is the first time that the evangelist uses the word "Word of God." He collects the Christian mission as the progress of the Word: as the preaching grew, so did the number of those who heard it. God spoke through Jesus, hence the authority of his word: it gathered, it liberated, it performed wonders: he was effective. In this, we might say with the words he will shortly use for Peter, Jesus is the first fisher of people. It is precisely in order to make the Word of God heard by the growing crowd that Jesus asks Simon to get into his boat and move a little away from the shore: everyone had to hear it. The scene that the evangelist depicts is emblematic: Jesus, sitting in Simon Peter's boat, preaching. It is the image of the Church that was already taking shape on that first day. When Jesus had finished speaking, as if to immediately show the fruits of preaching, he turns to Peter: "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." The invitation is made to Simon; indeed, it was his boat, and this underlines the concreteness of the charism, but immediately the responsibility is extended also to the other members of the crew: "Let down your nets for the catch." All presents are called to cast their nets for fishing, everyone. Simon - Luke still does not call him Peter -, faced with this unusual invitation, given that fishing is done at night, not during the day, obeyed all the same, abdicating custom and above all putting his tiredness from the night's toil to one side without having obtained any results. "Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets," he concluded in his reply. Prompt obedience to the Gospel is the disciple's secret, that which accounts for a life that continues to work miracles. The evangelist's note can also be applied to us: "They caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break." The Gospel invites us to still feel the astonishment for the extraordinary story that the Lord continues to make us live, a story full of fruits. Over the years we have experienced the need to call others to welcome the many who awaited the Gospel's invitation for a new, fraternal and peaceful world. And we have experienced the power of communion that, freeing us from deviant selfishness, has made the Gospel mission possible, as on that day those first three disciples, who "signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them." Even today, the invitation to "put out into the deep" leads us to broaden our commitment to lift up the many who are swept away by the icy waves of war, indifference, and all closure. In the meantime, let us imitate Simon Peter who, throwing himself "at Jesus' knees," recognises his own meagreness and his sin: "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" What has happened before his eyes is greater than him, all surpasses him.
The Lord not only does not turn away from them, he takes them as far as the shore and says to Peter: "Do not be afraid; from now on you will catching people." Do not be afraid, let us not be afraid to obey the Lord, he is greater than our sin, and he continues to work with us.