Sunday 4th February 2007Septuagesima
Fr David Cherry
Isaiah 6 : 1 – 8 ; I Corinthians 15 : 1 – 11 ; Luke 5 : 1 – 11
‘Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.’ Words of the Apostle Peter in this morning’s gospel.
...there is a sense of who he will be…. But he will have to grow into his calling over time – 30 years
The parishes of RC archdiocese of Westminster have been involved in
a program called At your Word’ for the past two years. It
is a program of helping people to own their vocation, God’s call
to them, as individual Persons and as the community of the Church.
What could being called, having a vocation be about?
Let’s start with some of the pitfalls in our thinking.
Greek thought has given us the ability to distinguish between
“matter” and “spirit.” Greek
thought leads to all sorts of divisions. Matter is what you can
see and touch and therefore real. The spiritual is rather more
difficult to define and get hold of and therefore left to the
professionals – the uniformed branch!
Among Christians the default feeling about spirit and matter is that
spirit is good; matter bad. There is this kind of attitude which
pervades society and arises in resentment about the C of E being so
wealthy (a convenient myth) with all that property (true but who would
take on the care of the historic buildings then?); and about the
Vatican having so many treasures while the poor starve…. (and by
the way by saying these things I don’t have to take any
responsibility because it is theirs!) Interesting!
Are great works of art, music, architecture somehow outside God, too
profane, not part of creative spirit? Greek thought can lead to a
convenient ‘us’ / ‘them’ situation; an
‘either/or’ Either one is good and the other is bad.
Hebrew thought is more integrated and so more complicated. God
creates the world with matter and breathes his spirit into it; and
declares it good. It is to the Hebrews like Isaiah and St Paul
that a specific call comes; through humans, not despite them; and it is
into a Jewish society that had begun to perceive ‘through a glass
darkly’ their God calling them that God appears in Jesus.
Hebrew thought, the Jewish way of seeing reality, is set up, prepared
for the revelation of God in a slow uncovering of divinity within the
material. Jesus’ divinity is hidden for most of his
life. At this time of the Christian Year when we have already
celebrated the great Epiphany mysteries: the discovery of divinity by
the Magi; the theophany at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan; the sign
he gives at the wedding in Cana – there isn’t time to
consider the earthly hidden life of Jesus, obedient to his parents,
living ordinarily, his sense of who he is and what he is about, slowly
emerging into focus through the life around him. His presentation
in the Temple on Friday was one such moment where there is a sense of
who he will be…. But he will have to grow into his calling over
time – 30 years. The appearance of God among us in Jesus is a
long slow uncovering, through ‘from within who he is
becoming’ - which is so ordinary, his divinity remains hidden
most of his life until the final three years.
The disciples – those common old fishermen, no priestly uniformed
branch here! - are being inducted into the mission of God, by
being with Jesus, as they accompany Jesus – they are amazed
– overtaken by the stupendous bounty of what his mission will
mean. There are two boats. Jesus gets into Peter’s,
but perhaps – the commentators wonder – perhaps the other
is Paul’s, the apostle to the Gentiles, a sign of an inclusive
mission of diverse bounty symbolised by the load of fish. All
this on offer, if we will hear God’s call to us and launch out
into the deep.
The bountiful goodness of God overtakes Peter. He glimpses the
bounty of God’s inclusive kingdom; his neat compartments will be
subverted; in the face of such limitless love he will come to recognise
that his perception of God’s kingdom is skewed, narrow –
the Gentiles (the second class division) can follow Christ too.
He will come to an understanding that nothing in all creation can
possibly be called unclean. This is his judgement. At first
God’s generosity is an offence to his point of view and he
realizes how narrow he has been: “Depart from me for I am a
sinful man, O Lord.”
How shall we think then of our calling and the Church’s
mission? Well firstly we need to be aware of the thinking that
separates the ‘spiritual’ and ‘material’, which
may lead to the thinking that the Church is ‘them’ rather
than ‘us.’ We need to come to an understanding that
there is no class of people who are called by God and those who
aren’t. We are all called to follow Christ in diverse ways
as we are. Attention to our particular journey within the
community of the Church will reveal the emerging call of Christ –
which is very much to do with who we are; what we like; what our skills
and interests are over time.
So I am wondering about our Lent groups. Various feedback to my suggestions have been given.
How are we to be helped at a personal level to discover, uncover
God’s call in our human lives as they are with the relationships
and responsibilities; how are we as a community to become more and more
the Body of Christ so that you and I can respond, perhaps at first
disbelievingly like Peter, but “Nevertheless at thy word I will
let down the net”…? Amen