Accordance

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Accordance

Resurrection     Scripture

Receiving     Hearing     Touching

Handed On To You

Response

(photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   Isaiah 6: 7 and 8

One of the seraphim touched my mouth with an ember, and said,

"See, now that this ember has touched your lips, your evil is gone, your sin has been turned away."

Then the Holy One said,

"Whom shall I send on my mission? Who will be the one to share the message?"

"Here I am," I proclaimed.

"Send me."

1 Corinthians 15: 3 to 5

For I handed on to you as of most importance what I was also given:

that Christ gave his life for us in accordance with the Scriptures;

that He was buried;

that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;

that He came to Cephas and then to the Twelve.

Luke 5: 4 to 6

Jesus said to Simon, "Go out into the deep water and you can lower your nets for a catch."

Simon replied, "Master, we have been fishing all night and have caught nothing. However, at your command I will lower the nets."

When he did this, they caught a huge number of fish and their nets could not contain them.

Reflection

Our scriptures present the responses of three people to God's call. In all of them we see an initial reluctance.

Isaiah thinks that he is unworthy, he is sinful. He cannot possibly be a messenger for God. There has to be somebody better!

I think we can all relate to that sentiment. How many times have we thought of others who could do a much better job in sharing the faith than we do?

God will have none of that. God calls us and God takes care of our objections. God sends an angel (one of the Seraphim no less!) to Isaiah and purifies his lips with an ember. This reminds us of how the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles at Pentecost and transformed them from frightened followers to powerful proclaimers of the Good News.

Paul was more than reluctant---he did everything he could to stop the spread of the Gospel. He persecuted the new Christians.

When Jesus called Paul personally, he responded completely and took on missionary journeys to many different countries. He really knew the message was important and did not let any obstacles stop him---from being stoned with rocks to being shipwrecked!

Peter is reluctant for a different reason. He is tired. He has been fishing all night. He caught no fish. He just wants to go home and go to sleep. 

When Jesus tells him to do some more fishing, we can imagine how Peter felt. He very reluctantly does what Jesus asks.

The result is amazing! Peter can't take the fish into his own boat and has to call over his partners for help in taking the huge catch into their boat as well!

Our response can be very much like those of Isaiah, Paul, or Peter. We can also be reluctant to do things in accordance with the will of God. We can easily feel that we know better. We can come up with a million excuses.

God wants to hand on Good News to us.

How will we respond?

1. Do you feel unworthy to be God's messenger?

2. What are the obstacles that can get in the way of you proclaiming the Good News?

3. Do you find it hard sometimes to do what Jesus asks of you?

4. Have you ever been surprised by the results when you tried to follow God's will? 

5. What do you see when you contemplate Kathy's photo?