First reading: Is. 6:1–2a,3–8

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above. They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.

Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it, and said, “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

Second reading: 1 Cor. 15:1–11

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

After that, Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Gospel: Lk. 5:1–11

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”

When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

In other words

by Fr. Gil Alejandria, SVD (Catholic Trade Manila)

The encounter of Simon the fisherman with Jesus showed the power of the word of Jesus. It also showed to Simon and his companions that obedience to the word can bring astonishing results. We may not be sure what went on in the mind of Simon when he was told to cast his nets after hours of futile fishing.

Perhaps he thought that there’s no harm in humoring the man they called Master by casting his net one more time as he was told. And he and his companions were so happy and surprised that they did. Such was their amazement that they decided right there and then to follow Jesus. That moment affected their “call” or vocation.

When I reflect on my own vocation story, I truly could not pinpoint the moment when I got the “call.” I entered Christ the King Seminary after finishing Grade 6 because my elder brother and some fellow altar servers of Sacred Heart Parish in Kamuning, Quezon City, were there already. Maybe it was just gaya-gaya (bandwagon effect) at that time. But when those ahead of me left the seminary one by one, I was not enticed to follow them outside. It seemed the seed of vocation was nurtured inside the seminary until it grew to a self-decision to become an SVD missionary. There was no life-changing encounter like what Simon and his companions had.

When I entered Christ the King Seminary as a first year high school student, there were 49 of us boys from different parts of the country. Of those 49 boys, three eventually became SVD priests. Of the three, one left the priesthood and got married. I learned also that some high school batches could not boast of a class member who persevered all the way to the priesthood. Nurturing vocations has proved to be a tricky task for the seminary formators. Some went out because they felt they have to help their families. Some left because they saw how challenging the life of a priest could be. But some of those who left the seminary still manage to lead exemplary lives as Christians. Perhaps the seed of vocation they received has manifested in different ways of serving God and his people as lay persons.