The Readings below for the 5th Sunday of Lent speak of Vocation and Mercy! How appropriate when we just ended the Year of Consecrated Life and began the Year of Mercy, the two overlapping for a couple of months! Now we are just about to begin Lent, and what does God desire for us but to accept and live in His Mercy so we can live the Vocation to which He has called each of us!
We needed the Year of Consecrated Life to remind us how important it is to have Consecrated Persons within our midst. For us who are consecrated to joyfully and mercifully live our vocation. But what would Consecrated Life be without marriage and family!!?? I received my vocation from God within my family, as do all of us. While I am continually being formed, during my formative years I was formed by my family and I am grateful for that!
While the theme of Vocations runs through the readings, so does the theme of Mercy! In all 3 readings it speaks of not being fit, of being a sinner. Yet that is the truth, that is way we need Mercy. Others need the Mercy of God too, and it is our job to take the Mercy of God to them so they too can experience the wonderful Mercy of God!
Reading 1IS 6:1-2A, 3-8
I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above.They cried one to the other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!”
At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.
Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it, and said,
“See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”
Reading 21 COR 15:1-11
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ 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 Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
GospelLK 5:1-11
to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply,
“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.
