The prophets constantly call us back to God

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the daily readings, for Saturday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

+ We leave the Book of Hosea behind us now as we begin the journey of Isaiah and his entrance into the life of a prophet. Interestingly, we begin today with Chapter 6 then return to Chapter 1 on Monday. This could be called a case of in medias res, which in narrative works is called beginning “in the middle of the plot or thing.”

And so, here it is; Isaiah is standing before the throne of God amidst cherubim and seraphim — those angelic creatures; and here it is that the prophet is being called.

But in his own feelings of unworthiness — he actually believes himself to be doomed — he admits that he has “unclean lips,” and he lives among a people of unclean lips. And further he acknowledges rather remarkably that his “eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

In typical Jewish thinking as in the Moses era, he must have figured that now he should die having looked upon the face of God. Whereupon, an angelic creature grabbed one of the burning embers from the altar with tongs and burned Isaiah’s lips, cleansing his lips and presumably his soul from sin, and declaring it so.

Then Isaiah heard the call from God, saying —

“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”

To which the cleansed and presumably now grace-filled Isaiah, having been spiritually touched by God’s heavenly presence, responds, “Here I am! Send me!”

Having heard this Chapter 6 in medias res, we can begin Chapter 1 on Monday and see the powerful words Isaiah would speak to the people in his efforts to call them back to God, which is what all of the prophets were constantly trying to do.

Jesus, for his part, is calling the apostles in his second discourse in Matthew’s Gospel.

The call is powerful; Jesus does not mince words or candy coat them. He warns, or at least suggests, that difficult stuff would happen in their ministry. He tells them not to fear.

But yikes! He tells them that after he also says to them —

“Do not fear those that can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”

And truth be told, at this point they would have no idea what their future would hold.

(Side note: Except for Judas — who committed suicide after his betrayal and the death of Jesus, and John, who apparently died a natural death after years of ministry — all of the other 10 apostles were put to death).

And so Jesus’ words, as he was calling his disciples now to be apostles, became infused with words of encouragement. Jesus notes that not a hair of our head is uncounted by God. Not a bird of the sky falls to the ground without the Father’s knowledge. And lovingly he also notes —

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.”

The verse before the Gospel reveals Jesus’ amazing truth about the reality of this call, especially in the difficult challenges of this call, when Jesus utters the words —

“If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”

The questions that loom large are simply this —

Have we experienced the same call of the apostles? Do we hear ourselves responding like Isaiah, and saying with his same clarity, “Here I am! Send me!”