Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are all reminded through what we have heard in the passages of the Sacred Scriptures of the calling which the Lord our God has given to each and every one of us, the mission that He Himself has entrusted to us through His Church. We are reminded today through the readings of the Scripture passages which all highlighted to us the importance of service and mission, and answering God’s call in our lives. Each one of us have been given the various gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities, all unique to us and our circumstances so that we may make good use of these things which God has given to us for the good of the Church and for the whole world, the salvation of all mankind.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the account of how Isaiah witnessed a great heavenly vision from the Lord was recounted to us. At that time, Isaiah, who lived in the kingdom of Judah, was called by God to be His servant, His prophet to the people of Judah, and He revealed Himself to Isaiah, showing him all of His glory in Heaven, with all the glorious Angels surrounding Him and attending to Him, praising Him ceaselessly, and then a great Seraph, one of the chief Angels of God came to Isaiah, putting the coal from the heavenly Altar and purified Isaiah, who was therefore called and chosen to be God’s servant, as the prophet of God, and Isaiah responded positively to God calling on him to minister to His people.

This was the beginning of Isaiah’s mission to the people of Judah, which had been alternating between rulers that were faithful to God and those who disobeyed God’s Law and commandments. King Uzziah, the king of Judah who had just passed away then, was one of those who disobeyed God and brought the people into sin, worshipping all sorts of pagan gods and idols. Meanwhile, the other kingdom of God’s people, the northern neighbour of Judah, the Kingdom of Israel had been been destroyed and conquered by the Assyrians a while earlier. Many of the people of the Kingdom of Israel had been uprooted from their homeland and forced to wander in exile in the distant lands of Assyria and Mesopotamia.

Therefore, Isaiah had been called to proclaim God’s words of His people in Judah, firstly to warn them of the similar fate that they might be facing if they were to continue to walk down the path of rebellion and disobedience against Him, and at the same time, to provide them all with the message of assurance of God’s love and providence, His kindness and mercy, because despite of their rebelliousness and sins, God still loved His people nonetheless, and He has always been patient in loving and caring for them, providing them all with the means and ways for them to seek Him and His merciful love. God wants to let His beloved ones know that He is there for them, and if they are willing to repent and turn away from their sinful ways, then He will welcome them all back most warmly and lovingly.

In our second reading this Sunday, we then heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, which  told to us the experiences which St. Paul mentioned to the faithful there on how he became a believer himself, after having received the truth of God from the Apostles and the other disciples, and after having encountered the Lord Himself in a vision that led to His conversion. He shared with all of them this story of his conversion and calling firstly to remind them all of the same truth which the faithful in Corinth have also believed in, and how he has been tasked with the mission to continue proclaiming the same Good News and truth to more and more people that he encountered throughout his journeys.

Again, just like Isaiah before him, St. Paul had been called and sent to do God’s will, to continue the good works which He has initiated and started, and which He therefore entrusted to them. Through the good works that each of them had done, many more people came to know of the Lord, His love and mercy, and were led into the path of repentance and reconciliation, through which they were restored to grace in God and hence to the glorious inheritance that He has wanted to provide to them. And it is this same mission which all of us also share in, as our calling and responsibility as Christians, to be the ones to proclaim the Lord and His Good News to all the nations, to show the Lord to the world through our exemplary lives and actions, at all times.

In our Gospel passage this Sunday, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist of the moment when the Lord went to the Lake of Galilee where He encountered His first disciples, the fishermen who worked at the lake, namely the two pairs of brothers, Simon and Andrew, as well as James and John. And it was there that the four fishermen, who were fishing by the lakeside, were told by the Lord to put their nets out into the deep water, despite them having caught nothing after many hours of labour. Simon, as the leader of the group spoke about his frustrations of not getting the fish all night long, but he obeyed the Lord’s command, and as soon as the nets were lowered according to the Lord’s commands, as we heard, there were so many fishes trapped that the two boats were almost sunk by them.

This is an important reminder for all of us as Christians that as we embark on our journey of evangelisation as well as in our work of proclaiming the Good News of God to the people around us, we cannot do them without involving God and without putting our faith and trust in Him. And in every successes that we do and experience, the Lord is involved in them in some ways, beyond our knowledge, understanding and even ability to perceive. We must not be tempted or deluded into thinking that we can do everything by our own power and might, and as we respond to God’s call, in doing what He wants us all to do, in our outreach to everyone around us, in our respective communities and places, we must always root ourselves firmly in our faith in the Lord, and put Him at the centre of each and every one of our actions and works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have discerned and discussed through these passages of the Sacred Scriptures which we have received this Sunday, we can see clearly how God has called on all of us, His disciples and followers, to be His missionaries and workers, the ones to proclaim His salvation, the Good News He has brought into our midst, and to reveal His love to everyone. We should be inspired to follow the good examples set by our predecessors, like that of the prophet Isaiah, the many other prophets, and the disciples of the Lord like the Twelve Apostles, four of whom were mentioned in our Gospel passage today, and also St. Paul the Apostle, who followed the Lord wholeheartedly and dedicated himself to decades of service in being a missionary disciple, spreading the faith to countless people he encountered, to the very end of his life.

Let us all therefore do our best and strive to respond to God’s call, in His call for us to embrace our missions in life, to do what we can to glorify His Name, and also to save more and more people by showing them all the sure path towards God, by sharing our own faith with them and by becoming good examples, inspirations and as good role models ourselves in how we live our own lives as devoted and faithful Christians at all times. May the Lord, our most loving God and Father, continue to bless us all in our every good endeavours, and may He continue to empower and guide each one of us in everything we do. Amen.