“Jellyfish.”
This is how Shusaku Endo describes the disciples on the night of Christ’s arrest in his book, “A Life of Jesus.”
Why jellyfish? Because jellyfish are literally spineless, and thus an apt comparison to the disciples, each of whom betrayed Christ in their own way, jellying away when the danger of death approached that night.
Simon Peter, famous for denying Christ three times, recognized his jelly-like ways, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Lk 5:8). St. Paul, too, confesses his sins to us in his letter to the Corinthians: “I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God” (1 Cor 15:9.). And even the prophet Isaiah, called to prophesy Christ’s coming, declared, “I am a man of unclean lips” (Is 6:5), unworthy to behold the Lord God or to even speak his words.
| February 6 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time |
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Is 6:1-2, 3-8 |
Yet each of these men beheld the Lord. And they did so from within their sinful condition. Thus, each of their confessions are read today as examples of God’s mercy. Isaiah, Peter and Paul all call us to our own confessions. These confessions, as we see in the readings this Sunday, are twofold: first they confess our sinfulness, our unworthiness, and, then, in the very same moment, they confess the greatness of God. To recognize the extent of our spineless sinfulness is to recognize the magnitude of God’s mercy.
Peter and Paul experienced this magnitude: God bends down to us, all the way. God climbed into “our boat.” He sits with us and teaches us (cf. Lk 5). His teaching comes, though, not just in words, but in deeds: “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3). The love of Christ, as revealed in his death and resurrection, gave the jelly-like disciples the strength to preach this love even unto their own deaths. Behold the Lord!
We can look to Isaiah, Peter and Paul as signs of God’s mercy. Perhaps with their examples in mind, we can begin to see God’s mercy at work in our own lives, even — especially! — amid and in recognition of our sinfulness.
And so we can learn from the deeds of Isaiah and Peter and Paul. Their very confession, for example, was a deed that proclaimed and communicated God’s merciful love to us. Thus, the psalm for this Sunday helps us respond with Isaiah, Peter and Paul: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart. … When I called, you answered me; you built up strength within me” (Ps 138:1, 3).
The strength Christ gives is, in part, the grace needed to persevere in our confession. Confession is a lifelong project! Christ strengthens us to continue envisioning ourselves according to God’s merciful love and to then preach this love in word and deed.
And so, yes, we call upon God, and God answers us. But God also calls upon us: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch” (Lk 5:4). It is as if God calls and says, “Don’t be jellyfish. Be men and women who confess the magnitude of my mercy. Be signs of my love.”
Or, to put differently again, prepare to give more than your words.
“‘Here I am,’ I said; ‘send me!'” (Is 6:8).
Catherine Cavadini, Ph.D., is the assistant chair of the Department of Theology and director of the master’s in theology program at the University of Notre Dame.
