5th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Cycle C
February 10, 2013 7:30
and 9am
Saint Margaret
Parish, Bel Air
Being Aware of Who We Are
Usually,
in our Catholic Lectionary, the first reading, the passage from the Old
Testament and the Gospel are complementary.
They
have a similar or identical theme.
Often the gospel passage is a kind of fulfillment of the message in the
Old Testament reading.
The
middle reading pretty much stands on it own.
We hear over the years many passages usually from Saint Paul, and the idea
is just to give us a sense of Paul’s thinking and teaching.
In this
way, the middle reading usually has little to do with the other readings. Well today, all three readings have virtually
the same focus.
Isaiah
in the first reading, Paul in the second, and Peter in the gospel, all have the
same experience. Let’s just look at
Peter.
With
the great catch of fish, Peter becomes aware of the presence of the divine in Jesus. He responds by saying, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
In other
words, “I am nothing, O Lord; I am
nothing.” So Peter has this intense
experience of God in Jesus and with this awareness, he becomes aware of himself
and his own humanity.
This
awareness – first of God, and then of self – this enables Peter to do great
things. It enables him to grow toward
being the kind of person God calls us to be.
This
awareness is also important for us – the awareness that I and we are all
equally human and all in need of God. Now
there are three moments here in the celebration of Mass for us to be aware first
of the presence of God, and then of our humanity and our need for God.
Moments for Awareness
The first moment comes
right at the beginning of Mass in what we call the penitential prayer. The core of this is our becoming aware first of
God, of God’s presence with us.
Then, with this
awareness, we can get in touch with ourselves.
We realize that we are not God.
We become aware
that we are human, a mix of light and darkness.
With the openness that this awareness brings, we can then allow the Lord
little by little to make us whole and permeate our lives more and more.
Then the second moment
for being aware of who we are is with the readings. We believe that these are inspired passages –
that the human authors are inspired by the Holy Spirit and this is really the
Word of God.
The readings consistently
place before us the unconditional love of God.
They consistently express the compassion, wisdom, and holiness of Jesus.
And again, with
this awareness and comfort, we also become aware of some discomfort, some area
where we need to live up better to our side of the relationship with God. So again, this is an opportunity to be aware
of God and of ourselves, our humanity.
And then the third
moment for being aware of who we are is when we receive Communion. We believe that Jesus is present and comes to
us in the bread and wine.
Our receiving the
Eucharist gives us an intimate relationship with God. This is why we call it Holy Communion.
And so again, with
this awareness of God’s presence, we are also aware of our raw need for
relationship with the divine and for the strength that comes from this for
everyday life. We are aware that without
this, we will be lost, without purpose, and probably sinful.
Conclusion
So we have these moments for awareness right here at Mass – to be aware
of God and aware of self.
And perhaps the important insight is this. We are only really aware of our humanity when
we are aware of God.
It is only in the presence of God, the all-holy One, that we can gain the
fullest and most accurate sense of self.
This is one reason why our participation in Mass is so very important
week after week.
