My name is Don, and I’ve been a Catholic priest for over 50 years. During that time, I’ve pondered these readings over and over again and have discovered something that I never saw there before. It’s given me new hope, new energy, new image of what I do and how I do it. I pray the message that I’m sending you will be equally valuable to you if you find it. So please share these podcasts with your friends. Thank you.

Before we begin our reflections on this Sunday’s readings, I’d like to say a few words to you, and one is that many of you I know are new listeners. And I’m always conscious of you wondering how I see things. And I use phrases at times that may not be real clear to you because you haven’t heard the background of what. What created that insight. And so it’s going to be a learning curve, I guess, obviously, for you to understand the direction I long to take you. But I thought one thing that was so powerful for me in the last, say, 12 years, that’s the time I’ve been retired.

And during retirement, I didn’t have all the distractions of running a large parish and school. So my reflection time has quadrupled, to say the least. And in that period of 12 years, something shifted in me that I think I need to let you know that it is a major part of the way I present the gospel, and it has to do with how God works in your life now. And when I was growing up, my focus always was on Jesus. Jesus was the one I prayed to. Jesus was the one who lives inside of me.

Jesus was my friend, and he was very much a human figure to me, even though I knew intellectually, I was told that he was God. But it’s like I had this Christian buddy in my life and I could turn to him and he knew everything about God and he would help me. But the more I ponder the whole notion of incarnation, I’ve been seeing over and over and feeling so strongly about this that I have to preach it. And that is this. That what Jesus was doing, his purpose was to reveal the Father. So clear, says it over and over again.

When the disciples said, show us God, he said, what are you talking about? You’re looking at him. I am the representation. I am who he is. And if you understand the theology of most of us who believe in the Trinity, we believe that Jesus is both God and man. So that makes it more mysterious, but also underscores what I’m saying, that when I say to you that God lives in you.

I don’t know if you feel that or hear that differently than if I say Jesus lives in you. Because if Jesus becomes too much of a human, then you have a Christian body working with you in your path. But if it’s divinity, that’s. I mean, God himself, this God who in the first reading you’ll hear is this incredible figure where all these angels worship him and praise him. I mean, he’s so clearly awesome and powerful. And when you can believe that that awesome power lives inside of you, then you’ll hear something not only called divine indwelling presence from me, but you’re also going to hear this word resonance.

When you have that powerful God dwelling in you, there’s a resonance that comes out of you. And it’s what we call a mystical life. The life of a mystic is the life of a person who’s directly connected to God. And there’s a power in that, like the power of healing that Jesus had, where he would find himself healing people without even surrendering to the invitation of the person. He would just. It would happen when somebody touched his garment and he felt something moving from him to her.

But she never asked, and he never said yes. So it’s amazing how different this is. And one last thing. All the prayers in the liturgy for the Catholic faith and in the rituals of we have. We always pray to Lord. You’ll hear it in the opening prayer.

We start with Lord. And as a younger priest and younger man, I always thought that was. We were always praying to Jesus, not noticing that at the end of it, we say through Jesus Christ. So I invite you to go on this journey with me to discover this awesome reality of God living inside of you. So now let’s look at the readings for this Sunday. It’s the fifth Sunday in Ordinary time.

First reading is from Isaiah, sixth chapter, first and second verse. In the third through the eighth verse. In the year King Uzziah died, 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. And one of the seraphim flew to him, 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 is 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 the word of the Lord. The sight of the angels, I will sing your praises, Lord. I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth.

In the presence of the angels I will sing your praise. I will worship at your holy temple and give thanks to your name. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord, because of your kindness and your truth, you have made great above all things, your name and your promise. When I called, you, answered me. You built up strength within me in the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord. All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord.

Great is the glory of the Lord. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord. Your right hand saves me. The Lord will complete what he has done for me. Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever. Forsake not the work of your hands.

In the sight of the angels, I will sing your praises, Lord. The second reading is taken from The New Testament, St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, 15th chapter, first through the 11th verse. I am sending 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 you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed on to you as the first importance that which I receive, that Christ died for our sins.

In accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. They appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. After that Christ appeared to more than 500 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.

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, however, me, but by the grace of God that is within me. Therefore, whether it be I Or they so we preach and so we believe the word of the Lord. Alleluia verse. Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.

The gospel for this Sunday is taken from St. Luke, fifth chapter, first, the 11th verse. While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus, listening 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 crowd 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 near tearing. They signaled to the partners in the other boats to come and help them.

They came and filled both boats, so 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. The Gospel of the Lord. The original piece of music, entitled Humble, was composed and produced by Ryan Hardner for our program. Before I begin my reflections, I just had a feeling while I was listening to the music.

And we used to be able to play popular music or songs that people could hum to or sing along with the words. And I always made sure I picked songs that fit the theme I was working on, and that was wonderful. But we’re unable to do that since we’re on so many stations. But what I just felt when I was listening to that is it’s important that you understand why I chose that piece of music that was written especially for our show and what I’m hoping it will affect in you. And I was just listening to it, and it had a way of just washing my mind away from everything that was possible. Distraction.

It was like I just sat there and let the music pour over me and just felt like cleansing water, you know, just getting rid of my distractions so that I would be open to whatever God is going to say to you through me, which I truly believe I do that. And I want you to know I believe I do that. Otherwise, I don’t know where I’d get the. How would I say it? Even the energy to do this work because I believe in it so much. So anyway, I’m just hoping that piece of music works for you as it works for me.

Now let’s look at the readings and what’s so interesting about the theme of this particular set of readings. It’s all about God calling people into a relationship with Him. In the first reading, we have the call of Isaiah. In the second reading it’s the call of Paul. And in the last, it’s the beginning of the call of the disciples. He was showing them a miracle.

And the miracle was amazingly effective to teach them something about this Jesus, who was to them simply an ordinary man. And now they began to realize this man Jesus had something within him, is someone who has this power inside of him to accomplish things that are beyond what human beings can accomplish. So there’s always this image when God is presenting himself to someone and inviting that person to enter into a relationship with him. And the relationship is primarily about teaching and preaching who God is. Then it’s interesting that there’s included a manifestation of some great power, something awesome. In the case of Isaiah, he has a vision of God and all these angels, seraphim, the highest of all the angels, doing nothing but praising this figure, God, this awesome God.

And what you see in that is the reaction inside of Isaiah is the reaction that each one of these men are having. And that is the first thing they think of, is, get away from me, God. I’m a sinful man. I’m an imperfect man. I’m an impure man. And isn’t it interesting that somehow in religion that is calling us to a high level of moral and truthful life?

You know, when God wants to come and be with us, the first instinct is, I’m not good enough. I don’t have what you might ask of me to give to another person. I’m a sinner. Paul has a way of doing it. I love Paul so much because Paul, when he’s talking about it, Isaiah has this vision of God in heaven. Paul has an experience of Jesus talking to him, appearing to him and asking him to be his messenger to the Gentiles.

And Paul is aware that he has been crucifying the those who believe in Christianity. And he’s shocked by the fact that this God would come to him, one of God’s enemies, that Jesus would come to him and say, I need you, I need your talent. That’s a miracle in and of itself. The overwhelming ability of God to look past our weaknesses and our sins. It so impressed Paul. And then the disciples, you know, they were ordinary guys, fishermen, and they had heard about this Jesus, they had listened to him.

And you’re going to hear more about the way Jesus got to the more intimate way in which he called them. But this was the beginning of their interest in maybe following this man because he did something extraordinary. If you’re a fisherman and you get that kind of fish, you’re pretty impressed. So what am I saying? There’s a couple things that you need to be aware of that is in your destiny. Because you have been created by God.

And you are called by God to be his prophet, his teacher, his priest, his minister. It’s amazing. And when you realize that, that you have this destiny in some form, it may be minuscule compared to the work that was done by Paul or Isaiah or the apostles themselves. But nevertheless, you have to believe that in your destiny is this promise that God himself will come and dwell inside of you. And that indwelling presence will make you so powerfully effective. Because Isaiah, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, in teaching the future who Jesus is going to be.

There are more references to who Jesus is. How he was born, that he died and he rose. It’s all in Isaiah. Where did he get that? From God. Paul was such an effective preacher and even was told that it was a tradition he raised someone from the dead.

Where did he get all that God inside of him? The disciples gave up everything, even their lives, for this work. And they were so effective. But they also were empowered with such great experience of having the same power that Jesus had when he walked the earth. So Jesus is the model of who we can become, is also for us the model of who God truly is, because he is God. So if you can feel with me what I’m trying to say, I’m saying everyone is called to some degree in this work of God dwelling in them and resonating his strength through them to the people around them that need whatever gift they’re longing for.

Now, I want to be personal and just share with you a vision, an insight. I don’t know what you call it, but I was deep in a meditative state and I heard God talking to me. And this is. You know, I don’t want to say that I’m like a Paul or something like that, but in a way I am. That God can talk to you directly. I mean, it’s not.

You don’t hear a voice, but if you get deep enough in a meditative state, you can feel, not only hear the voice, you can feel the voice. And these are the things he was saying to me. It was really interesting. It was clear to me that he was describing my call, what he did to me as a human being, which he does all of us. I’m not special in this. And one is.

He said, I want to take you. I want to take you. I want to teach you. I want to hold you, I want to free you. Take me, teach me, hold me, Free me. And I just felt when I heard those words that that was somehow the ministry that God has given to me.

And then I waited, and he explained some of it. He said, take me means I enter into your life, and I don’t just send you an invitation in the mail that you can read and say, hmm, I guess I’ll go and find out who this is. No, he said, I enter into you and I take your hand and I take you. Just symbolically, I take you into a new level of awareness of who you are, why you’re here, and who I am. It’s more than just an invitation. It’s a passion for God to want you to be in.

Intimately connected to him. And then when he says, you know, I want to teach you, I want to teach you, and I want you to teach others. And what’s so interesting about the teaching of God is that it comes in different forms. And one of the ways it comes is through the story. I don’t see how you can really enter into an understanding of God without listening to the story. The Old Testament and the New Testament, it is loaded with information and loaded with a kind of symbolic language that ignites something inside of you when you hear it clearly and you begin to see who God really is and who you can be in him.

So the teaching is not just about information, but it’s about a kind of consciousness of yourself and who God is. It’s more about not just the story, but. But your story with God. And then the next one was hold me, and he wants to. And so what he does is when he enters into you and invites you to do things, he’s not, in a way, teaching you to do something, and you go off and do it on your own, and then you kind of come back to him and see what he thought about it. No, this is where we really get into the intimacy of God living inside of you.

It’s more like he’s there and next to you, holding you, but actually being inside of you. The idea of being held by someone is an intimacy where there’s a flow of life between you and the other. Person. That’s what God is using. He uses the strangest. Not the strangest, but a kind of.

I’m glad I didn’t come up with this image. But he did. You know, I want to marry you. I want to be your wife. I want to be your husband. I want to be that intimate with you in the sense of we become one.

So the holding is really a beautiful image. And then the last thing in that vision was, free me, Free me. And did you notice that every one of the prophets and all the people that I’ve just talked about, Isaiah, Paul and the disciples, I’m not worthy. I’m not worthy. I’m not worthy. Free me from shame and free me from guilt.

That’s what he wants to do for us. He wants to free us. And, you know, it’s so interesting. I don’t know why we carry this. I don’t know, this kind of communal guilt. But, you know, one of the things that’s interesting to me about shame and guilt, you can be ashamed of things you’ve done, but you know, you’re part of the human race, right?

I’m part of the human race. And when you think about it, when you’re in this relationship with humans, you are part of them. And when you look at what we’ve done at times in history, you know, it was just recently the Holocaust anniversary, and you listen to what human nature is capable of doing to other human beings. When you pick up the paper and you read of abuse and genocide and these people who are so bent on destruction and abuse, and you say, well, that’s my race. That’s us. And there’s.

There probably is, unbeknownst to us, a communal guilt for the sins of our humanity. And we have our own, of course, to add to that. But to be freed of that is the key to God. To enter into you, to really fully enter in, to hold you, to completely open your eyes to the mystery of the story and then to delight in the fact that this is not something that is a general invitation. No, it’s you. He wants you to do just what you and you only can do and are needed to do for the people around you.

It changes so much for me when I feel this mystical invitation to be a part of the divine heart, mind and intention. Amen. The closing prayer. Father, your will is that you enter into us and become a part of who we are. For us. It seems beyond our imagining that we, human, broken, sinful, could be elevated to a place of carrying you into the world.

What a privilege. What an honor. What a responsibility. But that’s what you teach us. That’s what you’re saying. So free us from the shame and the guilt that might keep us from being so receptive to this awesome gift of you inside of us.

And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. I’d like to remind you that the program you just listened to is available on our website, pastoreflectionsinstitute.com as well as on our podcast. Go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to Finding God in Ourselves. It’s free to listen to anywhere, anytime. This ministry also needs your support, so make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website.

Thank you so much for your listenership and your continued support, for without it, this program would not be possible. Thank you.