Imagine there is a meeting of some amateur botanists, who love to meet and discus all things plants and flowers. They are meeting to plan a trip to some exotic place to experience new and mysterious plants. The chairperson of the group has some brochures to look at but also mentions a place he just heard about that is most exotic but has no further information.
Then a person raises their hand and announces they can help. Then the person proceeds to describe a place of utter beauty, saying that they had spent time there as a botany student studying these magnificent plants. No doubt when asked everyone will agree that this will be their trip this year.
Travel brochures can be of some help, but eye witness and first-hand experience has so much more to offer.
Today’s First Reading gives us an account of the call of the prophet Isaiah.
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!"
Isaiah is experiencing the very presence of God. He is seeing and hearing for himself; (my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!")
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!" – then an angel purifies his lips with the flame of truth, to become God’s messenger.
True prophets are not just person with there own take on theology – so much more. As I have often mentioned all of us baptized believers, gifted with the Holy Spirit in the sacraments, are called to share in the Church’s vocation to be God’s prophets in our time.
St. Paul in Roman’s lays it out so very well for us.
How can people have faith in the Lord and ask him to save them, if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear, unless someone tells them? And how can anyone tell them without being sent by the Lord? The Scriptures say it is a beautiful sight to see even the feet of someone coming to proclaim the good news. Rom. 10:14:
Our world needs new Isaiah’s. Now we may hesitate to say, “here I am, send me”, because I am surely no theologian. But look again at today’s gospel. The people Jesus is calling to be his disciples are not the learned Scribes and Pharisees, they are simple fishermen. As prophets, we are called to be living evidence of the gospel of Jesus. When people see and experience your goodness, they will take notice. “Don’t tell me, show me.”
Not every one will respond positively to our efforts. So it was with the first disciples Jesus sent out, but many did.
In Luke 10:1 we read:
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two a others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few . . . . . Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
Then in Verse 17:
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven . . . . . but, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Did we come to Mass today able to say, “Lord, I am happy to report these good things have happened this week because of the grace you put into my heart.”
And what will this week bring?
Think of the final words of the Mass today, “Go in peace, glorify the Lord by your life.”
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