5th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022
Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Cor 15: 1-11; Luke 5:1-11
There can be scarcely anyone on planet Earth who is not aware that Meat Loaf died a few weeks ago, as it was plastered across all the communications media. Even the Queen’s guard took note: at the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, “I’d do anything for love (but I won’t do that)” formed part of the band’s repertoire. Had Christopher Robin been still alive, he would no doubt have gone down with Alice for it.
I owe Meat Loaf a particular debt of gratitude as, for the past thirty nine years, I have used the closing lines of “Bat out of hell” in Reconciliation Services, in association with today’s First Reading and Gospel. (Incidentally, some months ago I also decided that I would save that particular song from the waves in the unlikely event of my being cast away to a desert island.)
You probably don’t need me to remind you that the closing lines of “Bat out of hell” are “Like a sinner before the gates of heaven, I’ll come crawling on back to you”, and I quote them in Services of Reconciliation in order to point out that they are the exact opposite of the way that God’s mercy, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation work. Today’s Mass Readings illustrate and reinforce the point.
Isaiah’s vision provides us with a perfect template for Reconciliation/Penance/Confession and its aftermath. Isaiah encounters the majesty of God in the Temple, and all his senses are assailed. He is overwhelmed by the sight of God enthroned, surrounded by the six-winged seraphs. Their song thunders in his ears, as the foundations of the Temple are shaken, and he inhales the smoking incense. Shortly, he will feel and taste the burning coal, having used his voice to express his unworthiness.
How is Isaiah’s unworthiness revealed to him? It is not by introspection, by delving into the lumber rooms of his conscience in an attempt to unearth every single sin or peccadillo of which he may, or may not, have been guilty: rather it is by looking outward, gazing upon the majesty of God, and recognising God’s greatness and goodness, which show up his own sinfulness by contrast.
There are echoes here of the old “long” Act of Contrition, which many of you will have learnt as children, and which declares as our chief reason for sorrow that our sins “offend thine infinite goodness”. In other words, we, like Isaiah, look towards God, rather than into ourselves, and recognise God as both awesome and loving, and therefore as deserving better of us.
Gazing at God, and recognising God’s greatness, Isaiah makes his confession, and receives absolution, as the seraph uses the burning coal to purge his sinful lips, the gateway to his sinful heart. Then, having been healed of his sin, Isaiah is given a mission, to be the Lord’s messenger, as we are sent out from Confession to be messengers for God, to fulfil our baptismal role as prophets.
Our Lord’s encounter with the fishermen shows the same process at work. Peter and his companions are brought to an awareness of their sinfulness, again not by looking into themselves, but by gazing at Jesus Christ, seeing the miracle which He has worked, and recognising their own inadequacy in the mirror of His majesty.
Like Isaiah, Peter makes his confession: “Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man.” Like Isaiah, he receives absolution: “Do not be afraid”. Like Isaiah, he is given a mission: “You will be fishers of men”. (Unfortunately, the play on words—fishermen/fishers of men—works only in English: there is no equivalent in the Greek original.)
As with Isaiah and Peter, so it is with us. We gaze at the love, the mercy, the majesty of God, and so are brought to recognise our own unworthiness. We receive absolution, and we are given a mission. Where, then, does Meat Loaf come in?
Well, that is the point: he doesn’t. His image of the crawling sinner is the opposite of the reality, and yet it is the image so many people seem to have of this sacrament. “Bat out of hell” is bad theology—but, by heck, it is a cracking good song!
