This Sunday’s readings have a unifying message: to reject fear and to live in God’s love is
to accept our call as children of God.
Isaiah, whose unclean
lips are purified by the seraphic fire, says yes: Then I
heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ Here I am, I said, send me!
Paul, the least of the
apostles, yet transformed at Damascus, says yes, encouraging the Corinthians to do
the same: By the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been
ineffective… [H]old fast to the word I preached to you. Paul has accepted the call
to allow God to work in him.
Peter, a sinful man,
falls in fear at the knees of Jesus, but Jesus’ reassurance in Luke's gospel –Do not be afraid – causes him to say yes
as well: They left everything and followed him.
We are called from our fear in baptism, where God says to
each of us, in effect: Do not be afraid. You are
a child of God: know that, live that. Like the psalmist who has strength built up within him, we are filled with God’s grace; there
is no room for fear when love fills us.
This reflection is based on Fr. Pat's Thursday Scripture class.
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