Experiences and mission

Every once in a while (more often perhaps for some, less often for most of us), God blesses us with powerful experiences of his presence and grace.

In today’s first reading (Isaiah 6:1-8), the prophet Isaiah relates one of his own experiences of God, one of the most dramatic of all time – memorialized in the Sanctus.

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;
each of them had six wings:
with two they veiled their faces,
with two they veiled their feet,
and with two they hovered aloft.

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.

This experience of God makes him keenly aware of his own sinfulness and this in turn opens him to an experience of God forgiveness.

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.”

This experience of God – of his presence, of his grace, and of his forgiveness – primes Isaiah to respond instantly to God’s call and to accept the mission with which God presented him.

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!”

May we pray always for deeper experiences of God’s presence, grace, and forgiveness.

May the experiences and graces we have received from God make us eager to listen for his call and to embrace the missions he sets before us.

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!”