Keeping Water Pipes Clean

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings: Isaiah 6:1-2, 3-8; Psalm 137 (138):1-5, 7-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11

Picture: By Paul Wolke on Unsplash

My dear friends, what happens when we turn on a tap that hasn’t been used for a very long time? Apart from hearing the old pipes groan and complain as we rouse them from sleep, aren’t we also likely to see dirty brown water flowing out of the tap? It’s only after we’ve let the water run for some time, that it eventually becomes clear again. Isn’t this interesting? Most other things––like pots and plates, for example––need to be cleaned only when we use them. But pipes are just the opposite. As long as they’re used, as long as the system is running, the pipes stay clean. It’s when they are not used, and the system is asleep, that problems arise.

This interesting feature of water pipes can help us ponder a curious point in our scriptures today. As we may have noticed, in each of our readings, God draws close to someone, and calls and commissions him for a particular work. In the first reading, it’s the prophet, Isaiah. In the second reading, it’s the pharisee, Paul. And in the gospel, it’s Simon Peter, the fisherman. All these persons react to God’s closeness in the same way. Before the holiness of God, each one is overwhelmed by his own unworthiness, his own need for purification… I am a man of unclean lips, Isaiah exclaims, and I live among a people of unclean lips… (S)ince I persecuted the Church of God, Paul writes, I hardly deserve the name apostle… And, very dramatically, Peter falls at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man’…

But there is also a difference. God responds to Isaiah’s unworthiness by cleansing him straightaway. An angel touches the prophet’s lips with a live coal, saying, your sin is taken away, your iniquity is purged. But we find no mention of cleansing in the other stories, except when we’re told that Peter and his fellow fishermen were washing their nets, the way we wash our pots and plates after using them. Jesus responds to Peter’s confession of sinfulness by simply saying, Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch. The Lord seems to assume that just by remaining close to him, by following him, and by sharing in his God-given mission of catching people for the kingdom, Peter and his companions will somehow be made clean. Which is also what Paul seems to imply when, despite his own unworthiness, he says that, by God’s grace, he has not only become an apostle, but the most hardworking one. So although Isaiah, Peter and Paul all feel unworthy, it seems only Isaiah is cleansed before being sent. How to understand this?

Could this be where our discussion of water pipes may be helpful? Could it be that, for us Christians, Jesus is the One who purifies us, even more effectively than a live coal from heaven? For he is the Eternal Word-Made-Flesh. As long as we keep drinking deeply from him, he becomes in us a spring of water gushing up to eternal life (Jn 4:14). To follow him ever more closely, to share in his mission ever more faithfully, is to allow the waters of God’s grace to flow through us, not only benefitting others, but cleansing ourselves as well. For to do this is to die with the Lord to sin, and to be raised with him to newness of Life. In contrast, it’s when we are distracted by other preoccupations––like money, popularity and material success––that problems arise. Making it difficult for us to find meaning in life, or hope in dark times. And leading us to rely on various bad habits to cope with boredom and stress.

And don’t we typically respond to our own unworthiness by gritting our teeth, and trying harder to keep ourselves clean? Often without success. Yet the Lord still insists on drawing close to us, calling us to focus first on following him, and on sharing his gospel mission. Letting him be our Way to true spiritual cleanliness. And this call is addressed not only to individual Christians, but also to families and (parish) communities, and the whole Church as well. Isn’t this why, at the end of Mass, we are told to go in peace, glorifying the Lord by (our) lives? And isn’t this a particularly urgent call today, when our world seems engulfed in deep shadows of different shades and shapes? From looming climate catastrophe to worrying conflicts and tensions everywhere. When many seem lost, like sheep without a shepherd. And we ourselves may feel confused. Lacking a sense of how to properly respond, of what we are to do, and where we are to go. Perhaps even feeling unworthy of the name Christian. And yet, could this often unspoken sense of our own need for cleansing actually be a sign that the Lord is drawing close to us? That, like someone turning on a long unused and forgotten tap, he is calling us anew. Inviting us to share more fully in his mission for the life of the world.

Sisters and brothers, what can we do to help one another become more like functioning life-giving water pipes, allowing God’s grace to keep flowing through us today?