Fisher of Men

Msgr. Michael Woster
The 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time
February 9, 2025

We all know that reaching a doctor when you need one can be a very tricky thing. During the week your call may be answered by a receptionist, an appointment scheduler, a technician, or a nurse, and all these people try to handle the calls whenever possible. Each one will politely ask, “May I help you?” And sometimes you just want to shout, “Yes, you can help me speak to the doctor!” 

In the Scriptures today, and in the daily readings this coming week, we read numerous stories of a special call by God to certain individuals and answered fairly quickly by their willing service. But you also notice that an intervening step has to be made before a person feels adequate to respond to God’s call. This seems to happen with a very familiar pattern. Often there is some sort of encounter with the divine, either in the form of a manifestation of God’s great power, maybe a vision or some miraculous occurrence. Then a dialogue usually ensues in which the person acknowledges their sinfulness and requests to be allowed to depart from God’s presence or asks God to go away from them. In response to this holy fear, God takes some action to purify them by grace and make them ready and worthy for their special vocation. 

These patterns are recognizable in both the first reading concerning Isaiah’s prophetic call and also in the call of Peter narrated in the Gospel. Isaiah cannot say ‘Lord, send me!” until his heart and his lips are purged of sinfulness. And Peter, he crouches and flattens himself to the ground when he becomes aware that divine power is in Jesus. But the Lord reassures Peter that he’ll be given the grace to overcome his condition and be made over into a “fisher of men.” And even St. Paul in our second reading had to be purified of his former way of life before he could become the great apostle to the Gentiles. 

A very interesting exception to this pattern is the call of Mary. When God is revealed to Mary through the Angel Gabriel, Mary’s response is not fear but love. She is totally calm in the presence of God. Mary has already been made ready through the gift of her Immaculate Conception. She already has the grace she needs to say “yes” to what God asks of her. 

I’ve been preaching recently about how all of us, each and every one of us, are called in today’s fallen world to be a prophet of the Lord and a witness to Christ. But how many of us will actually become a prophet or a witness? It’s sad, but so many Christians are content with simply being a good person — someone who tries not to be a cheat, or tell horrible lies, or purposefully hurt someone. But Christianity is far more than that. Being a prophet and a witness for Christ is far beyond simply not being a bad person. It’s being willing to suffer for Jesus and for what is true, and what is good, and what is holy. Christ, today is asking us to take the risk of being salt of the earth and a burning beacon of light in the darkness of our world. He is asking us to be a martyr for our faith. 

And so the take away insights and questions we have are these: Are you willing to be a prophet and a witness for Jesus in today’s world? What fears do you have, what things inhibit you, from giving a complete “yes” to his call?

The exercise this week is to take these questions to the Lord in prayer, and beg him to do for you what he did for Isaiah, for Peter, and for Paul. The Lord desires this of you and of me more than anything else. As he purges your lips and your heart from sin, he will fill you with his grace. And then with Isaiah, you will be able to say, “Here I am Lord. Send me!”