3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Vinner)
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ Jesus,
Today’s Scripture readings teach us that Christ has brought us from darkness of sin into the Light by calling us to repentance and the acceptance of God’s rule. The first reading today is from the Prophet Isaiah and is the same one that is used at Midnight Mass for Christmas. We can hear the prophecy of the Savior to come. Great joy can be present in our world because God has sent a Savior and has freed us from all bondage and sin.
The second reading comes from the First Letter to the Corinthians and encourages us to work together. If Christ has come to free us from all bondage and sin, then we must all belong to Christ and there should be no divisions among us. Yet as we look about in our world today, we Christians have all kinds of divisions. Yes, in many ways we have less divisions and hatred among us than we had perhaps a 100 years ago or even 60 years ago, but we are still terribly divided. Saint Paul wants there to be no divisions among us, but that we be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
Matthew tells us that the people to whom Jesus brought his ministry had been sitting in darkness, but that Jesus’ coming had brought them a great Light. The area was called the “Galilee of the Gentiles” because there was a large population of Hellenistic pagans mixed in with the Jews who had only recently begun to resettle a land devastated by earlier wars. As a Jew in Roman-controlled territory, Jesus had located Himself among the marginalized, with the poor not the wealthy, with the rural peasants not the urban elite, with the ruled not the rulers, with the powerless and exploited not the powerful and with those who resisted Imperial demands rather than with those who enforced them. Thus, He established His ministry among the apparently small and insignificant places and people who, nevertheless, were central for God’s purposes. We, too, need to introduce Christ’s Light into the darkness of prejudice, war, abuse, social injustice, hunger, poverty, ignorance, greed, anger, vengeance and apathy.
As Jesus began his public ministry his first act was to gather some disciples or co-workers who would share his work and his mission. Jesus recruited Simon, who is called Peter, his brother Andrew, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. When Jesus called them their response was immediate. They left everything, their fishing nets, their parents and family and followed Jesus to be Disciples of Christ. The story of the calling of the first disciples showed their immediate and unconditional response to the summons of Jesus. The initiative for the call comes from Jesus but their response was total. Even though they had no previous knowledge of Jesus, they dropped what they were doing, left all their possessions and their dear ones to be with Jesus. This calling his first disciples indicates the beginning of the time of the church. On the surface level this may not make any sense to an outsider. However, it emphasizes that there was something almost indefinable about the person of Jesus that drew these first followers like a very strong magnet. They left everything, put their total trust in Jesus, leaving behind their means of livelihood and not knowing where all this would lead. Jesus on his part had already taken this step in leaving Nazareth, his family and his livelihood as a carpenter for the sake of his mission. These chosen people now share the ministry in which Jesus was engaged and is summarized as teaching, preaching and healing those who were sick in the context of the kingdom. The Evangelist tells us that from then on, Jesus travelled throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. His mission was universal. It is the preaching and the healing work that reveals the efficaciousness of the salvation that began in Jesus.
Matthew cites the portion of the Prophet Isaiah which we read as the first reading today and tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. Many times we Christians forget that Jesus is the fulfillment of the whole of the Old Testament, the whole of Jewish Scripture. The more that we can understand the Old Testament, the more we can understand Jesus Himself.
My sisters and brothers, we are in Ordinary Time once more and we are ordinary followers of Christ. Jesus Himself invites us to become extraordinary and to give our lives completely to Him. This whole world can be transformed in the place of salvation if only we walk in the ways of Christ.
God Bless you.
Fr.S.Vinner HGN