Blessed Sacrament Parish
Amherstview, Ontario

Saint Linus
Bath, Ontario

Saint Bartholomew
Amherst Island, Ontario
Homilies from Fr. Charles Ogbuagu

Homily: 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

February 9, 2025

My dear brothers and sisters, we are celebrating the Mass of the 5th Sunday Year C. We may call this 5th Sunday vocation Sunday because all the readings of today center on the call of different messengers of God: Isaiah in the first reading, Paul in the second reading and Peter in the gospel, even James and John in the gospel too but in the background. The events of their calling have much to teach us both about Jesus our Lord and the good examples these apostles and prophet laid for us.

First, the criteria for God’s choice are always amazing. In human calculations, these men appear to be the least qualified for the all-important work of evangelization. In the first reading, Isaiah confessed that he is a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips. The prophets we know serve as the voice of God, their basic assignment is the conveyance of the message from God with their mouths. So, Isaiah having an unclean lip meant that he was deficient in the very faculty needed for the work of evangelization, yet God chose him.

Jesus met Peter at the Sea where he was fishing, Peter belonged to the unlettered and uneducated illiterates of the society. He appeared timid too, his timidity manifested all through till even after the death of Jesus. In John 21:7 for instance, Jesus met the apostles fishing in the sea, Peter was stark naked so comfortable fishing in an open sea. When he noticed it was Jesus, he dived into the Sea out of shame. Yet, even with his illiteracy and timidity, Jesus chose him and later made him the head of the apostolic college and the head of the Church.

The choice of Paul, as referred to in the second reading, appears to be the most surprising. The involvement of Paul in a case of first-degree murder is documented in the Sacred Scripture. He was the “monster” who led the angry mob that unlived deacon Stephen; the first Christian martyr. He was simply a terror to Christians and made life unlivable for them, yet Jesus chose him. He later became one of the major pillars of the Church and the greatest theologian that the Church of God has ever had. Some scholars refer to all theological works as commentary on the writings of St Paul.

Where do we go from all this? What the grace of God can do in us. From these instances we can conclude that God’s emphasis is not on our shortcomings, God’s emphasis is not on our past. God pours His graces on us despite our past weaknesses. If God does not emphasize our shortcomings, why should we ourselves pursue doctorate degree in the art of dwelling only on our shortcomings and pasts.

These apostles and prophet show us the way. Their responses when God beckoned was that of total surrender, humility and courage. Isaiah responded, here I am Lord, send me. Paul confessed in the second reading; “I am unfit to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God but by the grace of God, I am what I am.” In the gospel reading, Peter; an experienced fisherman labored all through the night in the middle of the sea and caught nothing. As tired as he was in the early morning, this young man Jesus with zero experience in the art of fishing asked him to put out his net not even in the middle of the sea, a possible place to catch fish but to put it out on the shore of the sea for a catch, Peter obliged Jesus in humility and faith and the result was shocking.

Brothers and sisters, God continues to call us in different ways as priests, fathers and mothers in a family, husbands and wives, children in the family, good workers in our places of work, good Christians in the society. We are called to follow the footsteps of these apostles and prophet of God. May our response be that humility, that of courage, that of total surrender, I am here Lord, I have come to do your will.