Sunday’s first reading describes the call of one of Israel’s greatest prophets — Isaiah, who in 742 B.C., the year king Uzziah died, saw a vision of God in the temple. In his vision the heavenly court and earthly temple meet. The train or hem of God’s garment trails down into the temple from God’s throne among the heavenly hosts. Six seraphim hold the throne aloft.
Hebrew has no superlative suffix, so the seraphim cry out holy three times to express that God is the holiest of beings, a cry we still echo in every Eucharistic Prayer, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts! Heaven and earth are full of your glory!”
The vision of God’s glory filling the temple as it does the heavens affects Isaiah like the miraculous catch of fish affects Peter. Experiencing the holiness of God, even partially, reveals the sinfulness of the human heart. The vision utterly silences Isaiah; he cannot live after seeing this vision. “I am done for,” he says. “I am a man of unclean lips from among a people of unclean lips.”
But God has the initiative in this call story. A seraphim touches and cleanses Isaiah’s lips with a glowing coal from the altar, purging his heart of its darkness. For 42 years, Isaiah speaks to the king and people for the Holy One of Israel. His visions of pounding swords into plowshares, of a prince of peace, of a shoot from the stump of Jesse inspire us still.
Here I am. Send me.
In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Holy One sitting upon a high and exalted throne, the train of God’s garment filling the temple. Seraphim stood above. Each had six wings — with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they hovered.
“Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabbaoth; the earth is filled with God’s glory,” they called out to one another. The door frames shook at the sound of the cry of the voices, and the house was filled with smoke.
I said, “Woe is me. I have to be silent, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, took an glowing ember from the altar with tongs, touched my mouth with it, and said, “See, this has touched your lips. Your wickedness is taken away; your sin is atoned for.”
Then I heard the voice of the Holy One saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Here I am. Send me.”
Isaiah 6.1-8
- To what in your life have you responded boldly, “Here I am! Send me!”?
- What obstacles condition your willingness to say, “Here I am. Send me!”?
- Isaiah’s experience of the sacred enlightened and transformed him. What experience of the sacred directs your life?