Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Encountering Our Lord (2025)

Isaiah’s service as our Lord’s prophet started with an encounter with the Lord (as told in today’s first reading).  He “saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne.”  How would encountering the Lord in this way affect you?

In the presence of the Lord, the seraphim cried out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!  All the earth is filled with his glory.”  Do these words sound familiar?  The words offered by the seraphim in the presence of the Lord are the words we sing as the Sanctus as we begin the Eucharistic Prayer.  At this point in the Mass, we have encountered our Lord in his Word and about to encounter Jesus as the bread and wine are substantiated into his Body and Blood.  In this encounter, we cry out, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts.  Heaven and earth are full of your glory.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest.”

In Isaiah’s encounter, the “door shook and the house was filled with smoke.”  This points us back to Mount Sinai, “Now Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the Lord had come down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently” (Exodus 19:18).  The smoke and shaking are signs of God’s presence.  Would encountering the Lord in this way make you tremble?

Isaiah’s encounter leads him to say, “Woe is me, I am doomed!  For I am a man of unclean lips…yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”  Isaiah recognizes he is not worthy to see the Lord.  Exodus 33:20 tells us that no one can see God and live. 

Isaiah is right except for one thing.  The Lord will make him worthy.  Isaiah only has this vision because God allows it.  To make clean Isaiah’s “unclean lips,” one of the seraphim flies to Isaiah with an ember that as soon as it touches Isaiah’s lips his “wickedness is removed,” his “sin purged.”  Isaiah’s encounter with the Lord grows deeper.

The Lord cries out “Whom shall I send?.”  Moved by the encounter, Isaiah calls out, “Here I am…send me.”  Would you respond in the same way?  Are you ready to answer whatever calling the Lord has given you?

Paul had been a zealous Jew, a persecutor of Christians, until he encountered Jesus risen on the road to Damascus.  From his past persecuting Christians and his encounter with Jesus, Paul recognizes himself as “the least of the apostles.”  Yet, he does not hide.  He understands that he is to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.  He himself writes, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.”  Are you willing to allow yourself to be changed by the “grace of God”?

When Jesus finished teaching the crowd, He told Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  Simon Peter responds by saying they had been fishing and, despite being professional fishermen, had caught nothing on their own.  However, clearly Simon Peter has already encountered Jesus in a way that leads him to obedience to Jesus.  Simon Peter says they will lower their nets at Jesus’ commands.  Simon Peter has hope in Jesus.

Good things happen when we do what Jesus says.  They caught so many fish that it “filled both boats.”

Moved by his encounter with our Lord, Simon Peter “fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” “

Jesus did not depart.  Instead, He cried out, “Do not be afraid.”  Moved by their encounter with Jesus, the disciples “left everything and followed him.”

You encounter our Lord every time you hear his Word.  You encounter Jesus in the Eucharist.  Whether we realize it or not, He is present in both Word and Sacrament.  In your encounter, do you recognize your unworthiness and submit yourself to God’s Will.  In the Our Father, we pray “thy will be done.”  Do you mean it when you say these words?

If you truly listen to the Lord, you will “hold fast to the word” that has been shared with you.

What “word” is this?  It is the same word that Paul preached, “that Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to” many. 

In all this we find hope.  Jesus has died for us because He loves us.  Embrace what He offers.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff