20250209 JOYFUL WITNESSING
09 February 2025, Sunday, 5th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8 |
'Here I am: send me'
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord of Hosts seated on a high throne; his train filled the sanctuary; above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings.
And they cried out to one another in this way,
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.
His glory fills the whole earth.’
The foundations of the threshold shook with the voice of the one who cried out, and the Temple was filled with smoke. I said:
‘What a wretched state I am in! I am lost,
for I am a man of unclean lips
and I live among a people of unclean lips,
and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of Hosts.’
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. With this he touched my mouth and said:
‘See now, this has touched your lips,
your sin is taken away,
your iniquity is purged.’
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:
‘Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?’
I answered, ‘Here I am, send me.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 137(138):1-5,7-8 |
Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.
I thank you, Lord, with all my heart:
you have heard the words of my mouth.
In the presence of the angels I will bless you.
I will adore before your holy temple.
Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.
I thank you for your faithfulness and love,
which excel all we ever knew of you.
On the day I called, you answered;
you increased the strength of my soul.
Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.
All earth’s kings shall thank you
when they hear the words of your mouth.
They shall sing of the Lord’s ways:
‘How great is the glory of the Lord!’
Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.
You stretch out your hand and save me,
your hand will do all things for me.
Your love, O Lord, is eternal,
discard not the work of your hands.
Before the angels I will bless you, O Lord.
Second reading |
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 |
I preached what the others preach, and you all believed
Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you – believing anything else will not lead to anything.
Well then, in the first place, I taught you what I had been taught myself, namely that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died; then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it.
I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they preach, and this is what you all believed.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn15:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt4:19 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Follow me, says the Lord,
and I will make you into fishers of men.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 5:1-11 |
They left everything and followed him
Jesus 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 close to the bank. The fishermen had gone 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.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘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 the two 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 overcome by 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 men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
JOYFUL WITNESSING
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Isaiah 6:1-8; Ps 138; 1 Cor 15:1-11 (or 1 Cor 15:3a-8,11); Luke 5:1-11]
As Christians, we have an obligation to evangelize and proclaim the gospel to all nations. By virtue of our baptism, we commit ourselves to this task because baptism means to put on Christ. In other words, we are called to do what Christ did. It is not enough that we become another Christ by the way we live, by our words and actions, we must also seek to announce Christ to the world. However, many of us either completely ignore the obligation to announce the gospel for fear of being discriminated or lose popular appeal. We want to be accepted by all and so dare not reveal our religion. We are the secret agents of the Church in the world.
Then there are those of us who might be conscious of our obligation to announce the gospel. But we announce the Good News in such a way that the Good News becomes bad news to our listeners. We are grumpy, grudging and negative in our outlook. We are legalistic and fault-finding, judgmental and self-righteous. Although we may be observing the rules and practices of the Church, we do it in such a way that it makes membership in the Church so burdensome. We take away the joy and liberation of the gospel. If that were the case, who would want to be a Christian?
Pope Francis in his first encyclical, “Evangelii Gaudium” or “The Joy of the Gospel wrote, “An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that ‘delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ.'” (EG 10)
Indeed, we must ask ourselves how we feel about our faith in Christ and our relationship with the Church. Are we joyful in our faith? Do we love the Church? Do we love Jesus as our Lord and Saviour? Do we love to read the Bible? Do we look forward to having quiet time with the Lord? Do we feel driven to share our relationship with Jesus and our experiences of His love for us in the different areas in our life? Do we look forward to celebrating the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Do we feel the joy of being in the Christian community and most of all, finding joy in serving the Christian community and even beyond our community? If your answer is ‘No’ then it means that you might be doing all these so called “Christian things” but you are not driven correctly because it is not the joy of the Lord that drives you. So long as we cannot say with the Prophet Nehemiah in the Old Testament when he said, “do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Neh 8:10), then we do not know the heart of Christian joy.
How, then, do we recover our missionary zeal? How do we engage in joyful witnessing? The basic axiom is that we cannot give what we do not have. We need to encounter the Lord personally first. This was what Pope Francis wrote at the very first paragraph of his encyclical, the Joy of the Gospel. He gave us the starting point for evangelization. “The Joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew. In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.” So how do we realize what Pope Francis is asking of us all, to be joyful missionaries of Christ?
In all the three scripture readings, the message is clear. The pre-requisite for joy in witnessing comes from a personal encounter with the Lord. The more radical the encounter, the greater is the transformation. Each of the three encounters in all the three scripture readings consists of encountering God’s glory, which in turn exposes our sinfulness and then reaffirmed by His mercy. And with the experience of His glory and unconditional mercy and love, that changes the person’s life radically, manifested in a missionary zeal to announce to the whole world what one has experienced – the utter love and mercy of God for us sinners. It is this that determines a real conversion experience. Without which, any so called “conversion experience” is suspect, especially for those who claim to have seen visions of God or Mary or the angels but without any conversion of life, nor a demonstration of a missionary zeal to spread the Good News.
Indeed, this was the case of Isaiah who recounted his encounter with God. He was worshipping as usual in the Temple, being a priest himself. Then one day, he had an awesome vision of the glory of the Lord. “I saw the Lord seated on a high throne; his train filled the sanctuary; above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings. And they cried out one to another in this way, “Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. His glory fills the whole earth.” The foundations of the threshold shook with the voice of the one who cried out, and the Temple was filled with smoke. It was a terrifying experience. Faced with a direct encounter of the holiness of God, he became conscious of his sinfulness and cried out. “What a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of hosts.” Then the Lord cleansed his sins by sending an angel, who “holding in his hand a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs” touched Isaiah’s mouth and said, “See now, this has touched your lips, your sin is taken away, your iniquity is purged.” Then when Isaiah “heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?” he answered, “Here I am, send me.”
So, too, in the case of Peter in the gospel. Peter just returned from fishing without a catch. They were washing their nets and Jesus got into Simon’s boat. After speaking to the crowds, He asked Simon to put out the nets into the deep water for a catch. But Simon was reluctant because he thought he knew better. “‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ 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 boats to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.” When Peter saw the miracle, he realized his sinfulness, his pride and over-confidence. He fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.'” But the Lord immediately said, “‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.” So we see the same pattern as above, encountering the glory of God, recognition of sinfulness and being sent.
This same pattern was repeated in the conversion of St Paul. He said, “I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they preach, and this is what you all believed.” St Paul was converted after encountering Jesus along the road to Damascus. He was made aware of his ignorance and his sins. After being baptized and having his sight restored, immediately, he began to preach the gospel and announce that Jesus is Lord.
These three events recounted in the scriptures should direct us in becoming joyful witnesses of Christ. If we find being a Catholic a chore, and witnessing a reluctant obligation to meet, and we are lacking joy in service and outreach to others, it means that we are driving this whole mission using our human strength and at most some intellectual knowledge of the need to spread the Good News. We will teach without faith or passion but merely do so as an obligation to be fulfilled. We get tired of sharing Jesus with others. But the person who has fallen in love with the Lord cannot stop sharing Jesus and His Good News.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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