In each of today’s readings, someone is called by the Lord, but that person is overwhelmed by a feeling of his own unworthiness.  Despite that recognition, each respective person chooses to trust in the Lord and answer this call, despite considering himself to be woefully inadequate to the task.  Isaiah says, “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!”  The Blessed Apostle Paul says, “Last of all, as one untimely born, 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.”  Finally, St. Peter, witnessing the Lord performing a great miracle, is overwhelmed, falls at the knees of Jesus and says, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  But the Lord says, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be a fisher of men.”  In each of these cases, God is reaching into a man’s personal life and purifying him so that he can proclaim God’s word to others.  Because each of these men accepts his fundamental weakness, knows he has almost nothing to offer on his own, each one realizes that he can be a mouthpiece sent by the Lord to His People.  In each case, the call comes from God, there is a time of purification, and finally there is a willingness by the one who is called to respond. 

This whole dynamic isn’t just limited to these three men that Scripture brings before our eyes today.  This dynamic is at work for each one of us as well.  We might assume that we’re not really being called; or we might feel unworthy of a call from God, that it’s something for people more impressive or holier than we are.  We’re not the first to feel that way; even Isaiah, even St. Paul, even St. Peter felt that way.  But over the centuries, God has called some pretty unsavory and disreputable characters, people with pretty sketchy pasts:  King David, Isaiah, St. Paul, Mary Magdalene, the penitent thief who was crucified beside the Lord.  He’s calling you.  I promise, he is.  This should give you hope, that God knows you, cares about you, wants you to help him.  But you might keep doubting.  You might keep wondering, and thinking, Nah, I’m sure it’s somebody else.  He can’t possibly be calling me, wanting to use me as instrument of his Holy Will.  I’m just a normal person.  You wouldn’t be the first to think that way.  Isaiah and Paul and Peter were actually very ordinary sorts of people.  But they were called.  And those three steps that they experienced: we experience those same three moments too.  God calls us, we’re purified and made ready, and then we say yes to his voice.  But we are called first, before we are ready.  It’s been said that God doesn’t call the equipped; he equips the called.  We are called first; he calls us in many ways, first of all by our baptism.  We are purified by regular participation in worship and the sacraments, so that we can then be ready to say yes to whatever the Lord is asking of us, whatever he is sending us out to do. 

And notice how this all starts: it all begins with worship.  You might have noticed, that scene in the Book of Isaiah looks suspiciously like Mass, and that is certainly no accident.  I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne.  Seraphim were stationed above.  They cried out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!  All the earth is filled with his glory!”  For Isaiah, everything begins by joining the heavenly liturgy; taking part in the worship that the Holy Angels are constantly rendering to God.  That is the same opportunity we are afforded here in this place at each and every Mass: to join the host of angels crying out to God, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of Hosts.  Heaven and earth are full of your glory; Hosanna in the highest.”  I think I’ve remarked when this reading has come up before, I think it’s very beautiful and powerful that our altar, here, where our most sacred moment happens, is right under this arch and those words, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Holy, Holy, Holy: a constant reminder to us that what we do here is unfathomably sacred: we join in what the angels do around the throne of God: we’re part of the reality that Isaiah saw.  And this is how our call starts, this is how our call gets going.  In our Worship, he calls us.  In our Worship, he purifies and strengthens us.  In our Worship, he commissions us to do his work in the world.  Those questions we all have: Is he calling me? If so, what is he calling me to?  And how?  And when?  And why?  God starts to give us answers to those questions in our worship of him in spirit and in truth.  Let us adore him; let us worship his majesty once again in this Holy Mass.  In our worship, let us make ourselves ready to hear his voice, whatever he might be telling us and asking of us.  Let us not be afraid to say Yes to his gracious invitation to follow him, to be purified and prepared by him, and then to serve him in all the ways that he asks.