Reflections on Sunday readings
Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13), 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11
Fr. Joseph Augustine Menna, AIHM
We had a teacher when I was at St. Agnes grade school, Sr. Maria Graciela, who every now and then would just bring us a treat, or excuse us from homework, or give us extra time at recess. We would ask, "Sister what are we being rewarded for?" And she would reply, "Nothing, no one is deserving of God's Grace, yet all receive."
I don't think may of us understood her at the time, but she was
drilling something into us. She was named in religion very well, "
Maria Graciela...Mary of Grace." She was teaching us what God's Grace was all about.
In the first reading we hear in Isaiah , The seraph touched my
mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your
guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." Then I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I
said, "Here am I; send me!" There is no reason given for the remission
of his sins. He did nothing to earn it. It was God's gift, God's plan.
Then God asks, "Whom shall I send" Our attitude can only be one of
gratitude and conversion by God's Grace. Because we have first been
loved, we can now love. We can answer God's call not because of
anything we have done, but because of what God has done in and for us.
Paul knows this, commenting that he is the least of the apostles,
but is grateful and aware that God has saved him because of God's
love, not by any measure on his part. And, Paul's reaction and reply to
this, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me
has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of
them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."
And thus, it is because God has effected us so that we might dare to heed Jesus' call to be "fishers of men."
May the light we were given by God's Grace shine brightly before all this Candlemass feast weekend and always! Amen
