Brothers and Sisters,
Christ is in our midst! Today’s reading from Isaiah:
Isaiah 6:1-12 (6th Hour) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
This reading for me is one of the most powerful found in Isaiah. If you were with us last evening, you saw this in the Church: the presence of the Lord in a house filled with smoke. And with our “spiritual” eyes we see, even in our simple movements, this heavenly worship taking place in our midst. The Seraphim about the altar and the Lord in the presence of the Eucharistic Gifts and His glory filling the temple. If we have “eyes to see and ears to hear” then our reaction would be the same as Isaiah, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” I am struck this morning by just how unclean we really are. How we are almost blinded by boredom and indifference. How easily I (and probably all of us) slip into sin, into self-gratification and ultimately into alienation from God. “Woe is me, for I am undone!” Yet, at that very moment, God comes to us as the seraph flew to Isaiah and purges us and cleanses us from our failures and sin. As a priest, these words of Isaiah are the very words I say after receiving communion, “Lo, this has touched my lips and shall take away my iniquities and cleanse my sins.”
And we are restored through communion. We are cleansed and made right. And like Isaiah, when Christ calls out, “Whom shall I send?” we can offer ourselves and say, “Here am I! Send me.” But the message that Isaiah is called to send out is not one of acceptance and inclusion or even of forgiveness. His message is that God will give people over to their sins so that their hearts and minds are dulled so that they will end up in ruin. It is not even a warning for them. But for us who discover that we are unclean, we have the opportunity to repent, to be cleansed through communion and to be united to God.
The reading should open our eyes. For us, it is not too late. It is one thing to know that we are unclean but it is another to be cleansed. Like the Prodigal that comes to his senses and returns to the Father’s house, now is our opportunity to return to the Father.
God strengthen each of us today.
In Christ,
Fr David