5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C February 9, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
I am not worthy to be your pastor, unfit to be a steward of divine things, keeper of the keys of God’s mercy. Yet I am all these things by God’s providence just as St. Paul was an apostle despite once being an enemy of Christ and complicit in murder. Though I’ve never killed anyone, I’ve no reason to feel any more secure about my credentials than Saul the Pharisee. By God’s grace, I am what I am as he is what he is.
And the sheer zeal, the incredible fruitfulness of his ministry gives hope to men like me, to men and women throughout history entrusted with grave responsibilities… that it is not we who accomplish anything of value, but the grace of God that is in us. Sadly, however, few people in history have made such good use of that grace as St. Paul. Indeed, it is far more common that men and women of great power make pitiful use of what is entrusted to them. This is the great scandal of our claim that God is omnipotent. If God is indeed all powerful, then why do so many kings and priests, popes and governors, mayors and bishops do so many terrible things? Perhaps even worse, how is it that terrible men and women sometimes do great things for God’s kingdom and that good men and women sometimes do such awful things?
The beginning of an answer can be found in that first line: “in the year king Uzziah died.” Sure, that line tells us this vision happened in the year 750 B.C. or 742 B.C. depending on which calculation you use. Scripture, though, is less concerned with time as a number and more concerned with time as a context for God’s work. What do I mean? Uzziah was a complicated king. He started off well: making people safe through an organized and disciplined military, providing infrastructure for food and water, restoring the holy city of Jerusalem, and the bible tells us he “sought God” (2 Chron 26:5) at least for a while.
Yet success and power affected him like it affects most people. In his pride, he decided to take upon himself the honor of serving God in the temple, wanting to enter the sanctuary and offer incense that only a priest was allowed to offer. When the priests rightly refused to let him do so, he became angry at them. God does not always directly intervene when a king does something evil, but this time he did. God struck Uzziah with leprosy. Humbled by this, he lived in quarantine the rest of his life and allowed his son Jotham to take over.
Then, in the year he died, that is when God decided to show himself to Isaiah. What does Isaiah say when he sees this? “My eyes have seen the king.” Although Uzziah’s son proved to be a good king, Isaiah the prophet knew all along who was the true king: God himself. No earthly king – good, bad, or some mixture of both – actually rules in his own right. Although some people are afraid of earthly rulers, it is God’s holiness that ought to strike fear into the human heart. Isaiah rightly fears he will be struck dead for he is a sinner standing in the presence of holiness itself.
Yet, once cleansed of sin with a coal from the altar of heaven, Isaiah goes from fear to boldness, to wanting to get even closer to God! Despite knowing first-hand just how far his wickedness is from God’s holiness, he is willing to take on the responsibility of speaking God’s word to his people. So God does speak through him just as surely as he spoke through St. Paul and ruled through Uzziah.
God’s holiness is never destroyed, it cannot be reduced by the faults of kings, prophets, or priests. The reason for God to reveal himself upon the death of a king who was both good and bad was to convey this truth to Isaiah and to all of us. It’s something he’s tried to teach his people again and again and again. David replaced Saul as king of Israel, but also refused to kill Saul out of reverence for the authority given him by God. St. Paul, despite knowing St. Peter made mistakes, still acknowledged that Jesus had given him authority over the Church.
It is a fact of human history, of human nature that we always seek leaders to guide us. God cooperates with this desire because he gave it to us. In our fallenness, however, we tend to misunderstand the role of such leaders. Their authority is real, but not absolute. That cuts both ways. We tend to trust too much in the ones we like and to reject too much in the ones we don’t. We misapply our belief in God’s omnipotence to say either that everything a leader does comes from God or to say that, because this leader has done bad things, God must not actually be good.
After the disappointment that was king Uzziah, the people of Israel made that mistake. One the one hand, some put too much stock in how good Uzziah’s son was. Rather than trusting in God, they trusted the man and when the next king was terrible, it all fell apart. On the other hand, some Israelites were so disillusioned by Uzziah’s failure that they couldn’t see God at work in Uzziah’s son, who tried to draw them closer to God. Eventually, their cynical infidelity lead to being conquered.
But Isaiah knows the truth: God is king always! All good done by any king, priest, or prophet is from God. God is always good. All evil done by any king, priest, or prophet, therefore comes from their sins and not from God’s cruelty. God has no cruelty. Isaiah’s response – like St. Peter’s – is a model for us. How do we navigate a messy world led by messy people? Two things: Holy Fear & Holy Zeal.
Holy Fear. Leaders in this world can hurt us in a million different ways; it’s natural to fear such things. The cure to that fear is not to be powerful than them. It’s not to take comfort in the fact that the person in charge is on “your side” for now. The cure is to fear God even more than you fear them. By “fear God,” I don’t just mean be afraid of hell. I mean we should be in awe of his incredible holiness, aware that sin cannot help but be burned by it. Yes, God often brings us comfort, but if you see him only as a comfortable sweater, it’s incomplete. God is a raging inferno so large the galaxy itself is but a splinter of wood tossed into a bonfire. If you’ve not yet experienced God as awesome, overwhelming, and immense… ask him for that. Because the warm fuzzy comfort of a sweater won’t give you the courage to face death itself, but the radiant splendor of God’s glory grants courage unconquerable. Learn to adore God in his glory, to really adore him, and only then will you understand how the saints can love their enemies and laugh in the face of death.
Holy Zeal. If we are struck with awe-filled repentance like Isaiah, if we fall to our knees before Jesus like Peter, he will cleanse us with holy fire, transform our fear into love, and give us a share in his mission. The fear must come first, but we must not stay there. Not everyone is called to literal kingship or itinerant prophetic ministry, but all who accept the merciful fire of Jesus do receive some authority. To live for God instead of pursuing power, pleasure, or wealth… to live for the truth and love instead of for comfort and convenience… to be willing to put into the deep with faith instead of relying on your own plan… this is the secret to living at peace no matter who is “in charge” at the time.
Trust not in princes, but God who is king. Trust not in men, but in God who works through them. Adore that God who cannot be overcome. Then, get to work showing others why they should adore him too.