Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2007
Wow! Oh No! Send Me!
The call of Isaiah and the call of Peter can be summed up in these three gestures with accompanying words.
Wow! Captures the experience of awe and wonder in the presence of the Holy. It is Isaiah’s vision of the throne of God and Peter’s witness of the action of God in Jesus in the great catch of fish. Wow!
Oh No! But once you have seen the face of God or experience the glory and majesty of God, you become aware of who you are. Oh No! I am a sinful man. Isaiah falls flat on his face, prostrate before the majesty of God. And Peter’s words echo Isaiah’s, leave me lord, I am a sinful man.
Send Me! Out of that experience of one’s createdness, limitation, sinfulness, unworthiness in the presence of God, Isaiah hears “whom shall I send?” and his response is “Here, I am Lord, send me”. And Peter hears Jesus saying to him, Follow me From now you will be fishing for people.
Those of you who are familiar with the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius will recognize this three fold dynamic of Wow! Oh NO! Send me” in the first week of the exercises. Wow ! before the mystery of God! Oh No! when I realize who I am! And Send me when I realize I am loved unconditionally as I am.
For those of us who went to Jamaica last week to meet our brothers and sisters in St Anne’s parish, it was definitely a Wow! experience.
Certainly a Wow at the beauty of God’s creation, the island, its skies, its water, its flora and its amazing fauna (except the malaria bearing mosquitos) but mostly the people. The beauty and spirit of the people, one whose history is filled with slavery and oppression is amazing in its courage, strength and struggle for freedom. The encounters with the people who opened their homes and hearts to us, who greeted us with such love and affection, who expressed such simple gratitude that we had come simply to be with them amazed us each day. And the faces of the children! Such beauty, liveliness and innocence! As they would come and throw their arms around you with cries of Sir or Ma’am simply wanting to express their love and joy at your presence, you couldn’t help but praise God for such a gift. And Sunday Eucharist. What a wow! We were so welcomed by this community of sisters and brothers in the Lord, singing and dancing and praising the Lord for another day! The spirit was so contagious that even Jim Carrol was dancing in the aisles!
But then there was the Oh No! Oh no! How can people live in such poverty. How can there be so much wealth on the island or in the world and so many live in shacks with tin roofs, imprisoned in their own homes so often by the violence that is always threatening to erupt. This is a new kind of slavery- economic, social, where the innocence of children is turned to weariness and hardness of heart in the midst of outbursts of violence, drug use, sexual abuse. When half of a class of 2nd graders are lost in an overcrowded classroom where they cannot learn to read and write because there is no one there to take the time to help them. Oh No! These were the words we heard ourselves say to each other at the end of day when we saw what a day in the life of a child, a teenager, an adult, an elderly person was like in the garrison of West Kingston.
But then there was Ms Dolly, the elderly blind woman who was so filled
with the spirit of God that she could not help but praise God and sing
That Man from Galillee. Or there was Alondo, the second grader whose beautiful
eyes brightened when he “got a word we were working on” or
Father Peter or Sister Beverly whose life is given in service to these
people who are their family. And the Oh No! before the massive social problems
would turn to
Here I am, Send me.
In a world where a 60 second commercial for the “Superbowl” will cost how many millions of dollars (which would translate into billions of Jamaican dollars), in a world where the chasm between rich and poor increases each day, in a world where the problems of poverty and violence can obliterate the “Vision of the Holy One” we are still called to hear the voice of God saying? Who will go from us” Whom Shall I send. We still hear the voice of Jesus say, Don’t be afraid. I am with you.