This is our Last Sunday in Ordinary Time, hard to
believe really, the turnaround from the end of the Christmas season to the
beginning of Lent which will begin in just a few days was quick indeed, with
Easter coming quite early, March 31st to be exact. This Sunday’s readings are a good closing to
the end of Ordinary Time as the readings help us to “self reflect.” Isaiah sees himself as a man of unclean lips
living among people with unclean lips.
St. Peter in the Gospel from Luke tells Jesus, “Depart from me Lord, for
I am a sinful man.” Both Isaiah and St.
Peter are speaking a truth about themselves, and in so doing they are also
speaking a truth about us, that at times we are a people of unclean lips and
just like St. Peter, we too, say to the Lord, “Depart from us for we are
sinful.” The Lord in His goodness does
not let us end in despair or evil, rather just like He told Isaiah and St.
Peter, “I will make you fishers of men,” and “the Lord will touch our mouths
with embers from His altar.”
Before we get to the blessing part of the story,
there is always a passion part, and for us, part of that passion is accepting
the truth about ourselves, though we are good, we still remain flawed, sinful
even. “If we say, ‘we are without sin,’
we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8). St. Peter recognized this truth about himself
and in doing so cannot even stand before the Lord and yet, Jesus raises him up,
because Peter is humble and seeks forgiveness.
But, to get to that part of being lifted up we go through the fire so to
speak and it is here that I want to look at Isaiah’s claim about himself being
a man of unclean lips.
When Isaiah felt the presence of the Lord he was
convicted in his heart and knew his lips were unclean. He does not specify what he meant by that but
we can deduce what he meant by looking at ourselves. How are we sometimes people of unclean lips?
We are people of unclean lips each and every time we
gossip, speak ill of others, defame another’s character which is a serious
offense against our neighbor and God, each and every curse word that we utter,
when we make fun of others, when we curse another human being. It is amazing that with the same mouth we
utter praise to God and then speak ill of someone.
Words, also, once they are out of our mouths can
never go back. I want to share a story
with you about St. Philip Neri, known for being a great confessor, and many
sought him out for confession. A person
went to Philip Neri for confession and confessed that they gossiped quite often
and sometimes uncharitably so. Fr. Neri
gave the penitent a twofold penance, the first part was the person was to take
a one pound bag of feathers and walk through the streets of Rome releasing the
feathers as they walked along. Once they
finished they were to report back to Fr. Neri the next day. The person did as Fr. Neri requested and
returned the following day. “Fr Neri, I
did as you asked, I have released all the feathers from the bag.” Fr. Neri said, “Good my child, now for the
second part of your penance I want you to take the empty bag go back to the
same streets were you released the feathers, pick and gather them up, place
them in the bag and bring it all back to me.”
The person looked at Fr. Neri strangely and said, “Father, that is
impossible, the feathers are out of the bag and have flown everywhere.” Fr. Neri simply replied, “And so too with
your words.”
A nice little lesson from Fr. Neri, but one that is
true. How our words can never be
retrieved! There are times that we are
like Isaiah and St. Peter, realizing that we are people of unclean lips or we
wish for the Lord to depart from us, but Jesus loves us too much to let us go
away that easily and He is always placing the burning embers in our mouth so
that we can praise and glorify the Lord and spread His love to everyone. Jesus looks at us with love, even when we
stand in front of Him ashamed, He can still say, “Do not be afraid; from now on
you will be catching men.” AMEN! FJ
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