Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year C

In the early scenes of the musical “Camelot,” King Arthur puts out a call for new Knights of the Round Table. Crossing the English Channel from France is Sir Lancelot who arrives, singing his response: “C’est moi!” [‘tis I!]

 

Lady Guinevere, at first attracted by his self-confidence, but then repulsed by what she deems his arrogance, as he recounts his exploits and qualifications, mentioning particular success in jousting, finally asks him, “Have you jousted lately with ‘humilité?’” 

 

The beautiful but tragic Lancelot can be contrasted with the three figures who appear in today’s Scripture: the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, who all seem to respond to their personal call from God: “Ce n’est pas moi!” [‘tis not I!] 

 

Theirs is a reluctance based in “humilité” and love for the truth. Humility, simply defined, is self-knowledge based in truth in which a person begins to know himself as God knows him, and is therefore free from either self-aggrandizement or self-abasement.

 

Let’s look at the figure of Isaiah, responding to his call from God. Aware that he is in the presence of God, he says, “Woe is me. I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.” Then, touched by an angel — God’s oblique affirmation of his call — he says, “Here I am; send me.”

 

Saint Paul, a former persecutor of Christians, who met the Lord on the road to Damascus, bringing about his conversion, says, “I am the least of the Apostles, not fit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.” And then he says further, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me has not been ineffective.”

 

Saint Peter, following the miraculous draught of fish, says, “Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” The Lord responds, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be a fisher of men.” So we see that the call came to these three men in very different circumstances:

 

Isaiah: while praying

St. Peter: while working among smelly fish and smelly fishermen

St. Paul: as he was preparing for an evil deed on the road to Damascus

 

They all meet the Lord in their unique ways, and respond in an individual, personal manner.

 

This is what Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est concerning our response to the Lord’s call: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, which gives new life to a new horizon, and a decisive action.” While the call to leadership as given to Isaiah, Peter and Paul is particular, the call to holiness is universal. Isaiah, Peter and Paul were called by God in the midst of their imperfections, their self-doubt, and even their sinfulness, to meet the Lord… learn from Him… and go forward to others.

 

Each of us must do the same: meet the Lord in the Eucharist… learn from Him in Sacred Scripture… and go forward to others by living a virtuous Catholic life in the public square, thereby winning souls for Christ. If we are to fulfill this mandate, we will need humility and courage, for we will be met with resistance, or perhaps with indifference.

 

By courage, we do not mean bravado, for the bravado of the courageous-but-un-humble leads to arrogance, and ultimately to the tragedy of Lancelot. However, the humility of those with self-knowledge is galvanized into the courage of Prophets and Apostles, facing martyrdom for the love of God. While the arrogant seek power and control, the humble seek charity and truth.

 

And so, we consider God’s call to each of us: to seek Him… to love Him… and to bring Him to others in ways great and small, aware of our limitations, but also of His grace. Then, perhaps:

-touched by an angel as was Isaiah

-knocked off a horse as was Saint Paul

-converting to Christ on the boat as did Saint Peter…

 

…we may help Him to bring forth His Kingdom — not something imaginary and idyllic, like the Kingdom of Camelot — but the true and challenging Kingdom of Christ, so that when He calls us specifically to become fishers of men in a way proper to our vocation, we might respond, “C’est moi!”