The reader can certainly sympathize with the young Isaiah who is awed by “the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple.” At the sound of angelic cries, the temple door shook and the sanctuary was filled with smoke. “I am doomed!” the young prophet lamented when he realized that his eyes had seen “the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
However this encounter with the Lord ended quite happily. When the fearsome Lord voiced the need of a missionary, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” an angel touched the prophet with a fiery coal, cleansing his lips, signaling his prophetic vocation, and allowing him to respond: “Here I am… send me!” Fear was transformed into courage, and Isaiah became a leading voice in salvation history.
The Galilean fisherman Peter also had a life-altering encounter with the Lord on the Lake of Gennesaret. A night of empty nets had discouraged Peter and his fellow crewmen. Their equipment was about to be stowed away for another day. “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch,” was the unlikely instruction Jesus offered these disappointed sailors. At Jesus’ insistence, they lowered their nets. The surprisingly abundant catch “filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.” Like Isaiah who was overwhelmed with the awesome Divine Presence in the Temple, Simon Peter “fell at the knees of Jesus.” Astonishment at the catch of fish “…seized him.” Peter is powerfully introduced to the Divine Presence through the action of Christ. Jesus takes advantage of Peter’s awesome experience of Divine Power to invite him to greater feats. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Then Peter, along with James and John, brought their boats to the shore, “left everything and followed him.”
In this Sunday’s second reading from First Corinthians, St. Paul insists upon another event of “first importance,” first importance for Paul himself and for every successive Christian believer. The Apostle writes, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.” Isaiah was enthralled with the magnificence of the Divine Presence in the Temple. It was mind shattering. St. Peter was awestruck with the quite unlikely catch of fish at the lake. It was life altering. Every Christian believer is now bid by St. Paul to ponder Jesus’ redeeming death clearly attested by the Scriptures and to ponder Jesus’ saving resurrection also attested by the Scriptures. If myriad temple angels and abundant lakeside fish can radically alter the lives of a prophet and a fisherman, then the heartfelt acknowledgment of our Lord and Savior’s cruel death and glorious Resurrection should radically transform every willing believer from a mindless sinner to a mindful disciple.
Isaiah encountered the Divine Presence through the solemn majesty of Solomon’s Temple. St. Peter experienced the Divine Presence through a lakeside reward of abundant fish. St. Paul understood that his Corinthian readers experienced the Divine Presence through the word he preached to them, a word of “first importance,” that Jesus Christ died for mankind’s sins and was raised up for mankind’s salvation. This Paschal Mystery is the core of the Gospel message and the genuine Good News leading to salvation. Embracing the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus with one’s mind and heart affords the Divine Presence to believers in every age: “Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.”
Present-day believers certainly experience the Paschal Mystery in the Eucharist, as the Death and Resurrection of Jesus are renewed on Catholic altars through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Believers may renew their belief in the Paschal Mystery in the quiet Presence of the Eucharistic Christ reserved in the tabernacle. Christians may deepen their appreciation of the Paschal Mystery through God’s written Word, the received Scriptures, the Bible. And certainly Christian community life, with an eye to the deprived and the despondent, needs Christ’s Paschal Mystery as its sustaining source. The unexpected Presence of God enlivened Isaiah and Peter. The perennial Presence of Christ in his Church ought now to enliven every willing believer.
