Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons: 7th February 2016

I'm a visual person, so it is easy for me to conjure up images for things. I don't find the symbols and iconography of our Christian faith difficult - I might not appreciate certain styles - but the reading from Isaiah 6 where he tries to describe his vision of God isn't something I have any problems with at all. In fact it is quite a powerful set of images, the Lord on a high throne, seraphs with six wings, smoke, the noise of the chants and tremors, the hissing, burning coal which the seraph places on Isaiah's lips as a sign of forgiveness. It's all very dramatic, but I know it is not a photographic picture, nor is it ever meant to be. It is an attempt to capture in imagery an experience far beyond our ordinary reach.

Yet there are those who would find this sort of description fanciful and unhelpful. There are still those who do not like any human attempt to make an image of the Divine One, even if it is in words, but the Incarnation of Jesus and his life amongst us suggests that we can use imagery to help better understand God.

In Luke's account (Lk 5: 1-11) of the great catch of fish we see in word pictures the divine power of Christ working through the fishermen's lives, affecting and changing what they are doing. We see him teaching the crowds from Simon's boat but then helping the tired and rather forlorn fishermen gather a huge catch of fish.

It is at this point, when plenty overwhelms them almost to breaking point, that Simon realises this is something greater; it is an encounter with the Lord who in giving them the gift of a great harvest from the lake shows the mercy of God in person. Here again we listen to those calming words of Jesus, 'do not be afraid' and see in Luke something like Isaiah's vision of God, working in the moments of ordinary life but achieving with us extraordinary things! We too meet the angels and seraphs of daily life, but as the saying goes, often 'entertain them unawares'!

Paul's declaration of the resurrection, his list of witnesses to Christ's appearance, is a simple statement of fact. These are they who saw the Lord then, but it doesn't take away our encounter with him in the now! If we are open to Christ we too will find in our lives encounters like that of Isaiah and Simon!