3rd Sunday
Ordinary Time (A)
Matthew 4:12-23
This Sunday’s Readings
First Reading
Isaiah 8:23-9:3
The people in darkness have seen a great light.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 27:1,4,13-14
The Lord is our refuge, our light, our salvation.
Second Reading
1 Corinthians 1:10-13,17
Paul urges the community at Corinth to be united as people baptized in Christ’s name.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 4:12-23
Jesus begins to preach in Galilee and calls his first disciples. (shorter form Matthew 4:12-17)
Background on the Gospel Reading
Today’s Gospel describes the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (called the Synoptic Gospels), Jesus’ public ministry begins after his baptism by John the Baptist and after his retreat to the desert where he was tempted by the devil. When Jesus returns from the desert, he hears that John has been arrested.
The first part of today’s Gospel places Jesus’ ministry in the context of the writings of the prophet, Isaiah. Matthew wants to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies given to the people of Israel, and he refers to Isaiah to do so. Isaiah says that the Messiah will begin his ministry in Galilee, the land of the Gentiles. When Jesus begins to preach in Galilee, Matthew points to his ministry as a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, proof that Jesus is the Messiah.
When Jesus called his first disciples, the Gospel tells us that the fishermen (Peter and Andrew, James and John) dropped everything to follow Jesus immediately. Yet this Gospel tells us little about the prior experience that the fishermen had of Jesus. Did they know him? Had they heard him preach? What kind of person must Jesus have been to invoke such a response? We can imagine that Jesus was a powerful presence to elicit a response as immediate and complete as these first disciples gave.
The Gospel concludes with a description of the ministry that Jesus begins in Galilee. Jesus inaugurates the Kingdom of God with his work. He teaches in the synagogue and preaches the kingdom. His ability to cure people’s diseases and illness is a sign of the kingdom. In Jesus’ ministry, we already begin to see the Kingdom of God among us.
The Lord is passing through the square
Pope Francis
This Sunday’s Gospel recounts the beginnings of the public life of Jesus in the cities and villages of Galilee. His mission does not begin in Jerusalem, the religious centre and also the social and political centre, but in an area on the outskirts, an area looked down upon by the most observant Jews because of the presence in that region of various foreign peoples; that is why the Prophet Isaiah calls it “Galilee of the nations” (Is 9:1).
It is a borderland, a place of transit where people of different races, cultures, and religions converge. Thus Galilee becomes a symbolic place for the Gospel to open to all nations. From this point of view, Galilee is like the world of today: the co-presence of different cultures, the necessity for comparison and the necessity of encounter. We too are immersed every day in a kind of “Galilee of the nations”, and in this type of context we may feel afraid and give in to the temptation to build fences to make us feel safer, more protected. But Jesus teaches us that the Good News, which he brings, is not reserved to one part of humanity, it is to be communicated to everyone. It is a proclamation of joy destined for those who are waiting for it, but also for all those who perhaps are no longer waiting for anything and haven’t even the strength to seek and to ask.
Starting from Galilee, Jesus teaches us that no one is excluded from the salvation of God, rather it is from the margins that God prefers to begin, from the least, so as to reach everyone. He teaches us a method, his method, which also expresses the content, which is the Father’s mercy. “Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel” (Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 20).
Jesus begins his mission not only from a decentralized place, but also among men whom one would call, refer to, as having a “low profile”. When choosing his first disciples and future apostles, he does not turn to the schools of scribes and doctors of the Law, but to humble people and simple people, who diligently prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus goes to call them where they work, on the lakeshore: they are fishermen. He calls them, and they follow him, immediately. They leave their nets and go with him: their life will become an extraordinary and fascinating adventure.
Dear friends, the Lord is calling today too! The Lord passes through the paths of our daily life. Even today at this moment, here, the Lord is passing through the square. He is calling us to go with him, to work with him for the Kingdom of God, in the “Galilee” of our times. May each one of you think: the Lord is passing by today, the Lord is watching me, he is looking at me! What is the Lord saying to me? And if one of you feels that the Lord says to you “follow me” be brave, go with the Lord. The Lord never disappoints. Feel in your heart if the Lord is calling you to follow him. Let’s let his gaze rest on us, hear his voice, and follow him! “That the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth, illuminating even the fringes of our world” (ibid., n. 288).
Pope Francis
Angelus 26/01/2014
Called to Conversion, Mission and Unity
Romeo Ballan, mccj
Since the first public appearances (Gospel), Jesus presents himself asanitinerant missionary: going from village to village, teaching, preaching the good news of the Kingdom, healing the sick, calling his disciples… (v. 23). He begins his mission not in important and religious places such as Jerusalem, but in remote areas, among those faraway, the heterodox, the less religious, the half-pagans, the unclean and in contact with gentiles. Such were considered the inhabitants of Galilee (v. 15). Jesus leaves Nazareth and goes to live in Capernaum, a border town with a custom post for the merchandise in transit along the “way of the sea” (v. 13.15), the imperial road linking Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia. Since ancient times, therefore, Galilee was an area crisscrossed by peoples, subjected to the passage of troops and the control of goods, with the resulting contamination and moral consequences. Thus one can understand the appeal that the prophet Isaiah addresses to the inhabitants of the region (I Reading): to move from the humiliating experience of slavery (v. 23) and from the yoke of oppression (v. 3) to a life of freedom, to a great light (v. 1) and joy (v. 2). Matthew (Gospel) perceives that the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled with the presence of Jesus (v. 14-17), whose mission has a beginningfull of hope (v. 23), based, however, on a demanding program of conversion to God and of commitment to his Kingdom (v. 17).
With this initial option, Jesus shows that the first recipients of his Gospel and the Kingdom are not the righteous, the observant or those who consider themselves as such, but the outcasts, the excluded… It is the humble beginning of a mission that will have universal horizons, and that will be continued by his disciples and their successors, called to follow Jesus in every part of the world to be “fishers of men” (v. 19). The missionary vocational ways implies an exodus, a departure, often geographic, to leave somebody and something; there is always a gap, an exit from one’s selfishness and confined environment. Here Jesus leaves Nazareth (v. 13) and spaces of intimacy with his Mother, he who had chosen to be the Emmanuel in human flesh. As once Abraham was asked to leave his land and his family, so now two sets of brothers, called by Jesus to follow him, leave the nets, the boat and their father (see v. 20.22). In any case, the call is never a departure towards a vacuum: it is to leave something in order to follow Someone, a setting off to meet Another. In the first place there is always the encounter with and the affection for the person of Jesus.
This vocation and mission is rooted in conversion (“Repent …” v. 17), a change of mentality, a new orientation toward God and His kingdom, of which Jesus Christ is the completeness. Conversion to Christ involves discipleship and mission, to be well rooted in Him and well integrated in the pathways of the world: “I will make you fishers of men” (v. 19). This was the case with Paul (II Reading), whose conversion is remembered at this time (January 25). A total and faithful conversion till martyrdom! On the road to Damascus he’s not only born a Christian, but also the greatest missionary among the gentiles, the evangelizer in love with the crucified and risen Christ (v. 10). (*) The Pauline message is topical during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, when the Christians are called to live together, to avoid divisions and discord, to be in perfect union (see 10-11), because Christ is not divided (v. 13). To become aware of the vastness and urgency of the problems of the world will help us to overcome selfishness, division, discord and local tension. With contemporary topicality, S. Teresa of Avila used to say, “The world is burning; there is no time to deal with God about busines sof little importance… When I see the great needs of the Church, these affect me so much that it seems unworthy to worry for other things”
Jesus’ missionary and vocation proposal (Gospel) is global in approach and content. It is divided into four stages:
- 1. A look at the situation of the world: peoples far away, remote and not very religious (v. 13-16);
- 2. An invitation to conversion of the heart toward God and his Kingdom (v. 17);
- 3. The encounter with and the following of Christ: “Come after me…” (v. 19.21);
- 4. The mission in the world: to be “fishers of men” (v. 19).
How long will the night last?
Fernando Armellini
Introduction
“Judas, taking the morsel, went out immediately. And it was night” (Jn 13:30). A few words to describe a dramatic scene: a man, now at the mercy of his crazy projects, abandons Christ—the light—and is swallowed by darkness.
A human being fears the darkness of the night and is heartened when he sees the first signs of dawn. Sentries scan the horizon, waiting for the dawn (Ps 130:6). Long are the nights of those who burn with fever, are troubled by nightmares and are in the state of tossing and turning up in the morning (Jn 7:3-4).
One who precipitates in the darkness of vice, falsehood, and injustice also waits for the ray of light. One who announces the end of a painful night and the beginning of a new day waits for that ray of light, too.
“Watchman, how much of the night remains?” the prophet asks (Is 21:11). How much longer will the darkness of evil and of sin in the world be? When will the people be freed from the power of darkness? (Col 1:13).
Paul invites us to hope. “This is the time to awake, for our salvation is now nearer than when we first believed; the night is almost over, and the day is at hand” (Rom 13:11-12).
The light-darkness conflict continues, waiting for the endless day, when “there will be no more night. They will not need the light of lamp or sun for God himself will be the light and they will reign forever” (Rev 22:5).
First Reading: Isaiah 8:23b–9:3
With the exception of the first verse, we have already heard this reading at Mass on Christmas Eve. For a complete understanding of the text, you can then refer to the explanation that is given.
The prophecy is historically set in the second half of the eighth century B.C. It was the era of the great Assyrian expansion in the Middle East. Even the tribes of Zebulon and Naphtali, situated in northern Israel, were involved in these military-political upheavals. Devastation, violence, deportation, the imposition of heavy taxes were the consequences of the invasion of armies coming from Mesopotamia. The dramatic situation is presented by Isaiah as a humiliation, permitted by the Lord, as a triumph of darkness over the light.
In the region of Galilee, it was as if the chaos that reigned before the creation when “darkness covered the abyss” (Gen 1:2) had returned. The fertile lands beyond the Jordan seemed shrouded in the darkness of a night without end. Everywhere death reigned unchallenged. The depressed people had lost all hope. It was resigned to see the glorious “Way of the sea” that, passing through Palestine, connected Egypt to Mesopotamia and forever guarded by the arrogant Assyrian soldiers.
At this time of general smashing, the voice of the prophet who announces the dawn of a new day resounds: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. On those who live in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (9:1).
It is the promise of a reversal of the situation. With his forward-looking gaze, Isaiah sees the Assyrian armies, responsible for the national disaster, withdraw and Israel to resume its life in joy and peace.
The light referred to by the prophet was certainly a new king, a descendant of David’s family. He was destined to carry out the mission to dispel the darkness introduced by the foreign invaders. Probably he was thinking of Hezekiah, the child in whom he had placed so much hope.
What happened historically? Nothing. The Assyrians continued to occupy the lands of Zebulon and Naphtali for another hundred years. Hezekiah who tried to escape their yoke “was kept in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage” as stated in an inscription of Sennacherib found in Nineveh. And then? Was the prophet deceived?
The historical perspective that we have is very narrow and limited. If we do not immediately see our projects materializing, we think that God has forgotten us. He fulfills his promises, but in an unexpected way and in God’s due time.
If the dreams of the people of Isaiah’s time were met, other oppressors would have succeeded the Assyrians because it is the logic of the world. The loser is eliminated, and the winner must immediately confront other claimants.
God does not enter into this conflict. He looks from the top and firmly holds the situation in hand. He has a plan that radically disrupts the repetitive and inconclusive logic of the struggle for power. The prophecy is realized, according to the logic of God, 750 years later.
When Jesus showed up on the shores of the lake, the kingdom of the Assyrians had already collapsed hundreds of years, but the darkness of the world had not been dissolved. It was the darkness of evil, violence, oppression, corruption, and selfishness. This darkness began to thin out—as Matthew will say in today’s Gospel—only when, with the beginning of the public life of Jesus, a light has shone on the mountains of Galilee.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:10-13,17
When he wrote the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul was in Ephesus, the political and religious capital of the Roman province of Asia, the meeting place between the cultures of East and West, the home of famous masters and craftsmen. There, sailors, soldiers, and traders from all over the world met.
One day some members of the family of Chloe (v. 11) from Corinth came into this city. They delivered to Paul a letter sent by the Christians of that city.
Before reading it, the apostle wanted to know about that church. His hesitant guests—not knowing whether to tell or not to tell—ended up telling openly everything they knew. In Corinth, the life of the community was painful. There were scandalous quarrels, and divisions arose, appealing to the name of an apostle (some boasted of belonging to Peter, others to Apollo, others to Paul). It would be better to draw a merciful veil on their moral behavior. There were debaucheries that even the Gentiles would be ashamed of. In their Eucharistic celebrations, each group isolated itself and disregarded the others. There was no need to mention envy, criticism, and grumbling. In short, Chloe’s people—as they say—just emptied the bag.
Disappointed and worried, Paul listened in silence. For a moment, he was perhaps thinking about the failure of his entire evangelizing mission, but then he recovered and decided to write to the Christians of Corinth. So the letter, proposed to us this Sunday, was written.
The first argument Paul confronts is about the disagreements, conflicts and the divisions in that community. It is the passage that is taken up in today’s reading. “Is Christ divided? Has Paul been crucified for you? Have you been baptized in the name of Paul?” (v. 13). They are harsh words that reveal the gravity of the situation.
Paul makes it clear: the apostles are not the masters but servants; they are not the saviors; there is only one Savior, Christ. What caused such discord was—then as now—selfishness, the desire to dominate others, to prevail among others, and to impose oneself on others.
The light of the Gospel—lit by Paul—had shone in Corinth, but the obscurity of sin and the darkness of death were still very dense and were hard to dissolve.
Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23
Today’s Gospel is made up of three parts. First of all, with a quotation from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus’ activity in Galilee is introduced (vv. 12-17). Then there is the vocation story of the first four disciples (vv. 18-22). Finally, the activity of Jesus is summed up in one sentence (v. 23).
After the conclusion of John the Baptist’s mission, Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum. It became the center of his activities for nearly three years.
Capernaum was a village of fishermen and farmers that stretched for about three hundred meters along the western shore of Lake Gennesaret. It was not renowned like the city of Tiberias—where the Tetrarch Herod Antipas lived—or like the rich and prosperous Magdala, famous for its flourishing industries of salted fish and dyeing. However, it enjoyed a certain prestige: it was along the “Way of the Sea”—the famous imperial road. It started from Egypt and passing through Damascus it led to Mesopotamia. It marked the border between Galilee and the Golan, which belonged to Philip (another son of Herod the Great). It was a border area with a customs office where a duty of all merchandise was collected.
Matthew does not merely record Jesus’ change of residence. He complements the information with a reference to a text of the Bible. To understand its meaning, it must be noted that Galilee was inhabited by Israelites regarded by all as semi-pagans because they were born from the intermingling of different peoples. The Jews of Jerusalem despised them because they were considered poorly educated, ignorant of the law, corrupt in customs and less observant of the rabbinic provisions. They were also viewed with suspicion because of their subversive tendencies in the political arena (Galileans initiated the Zealot movement, responsible for the bloody revolts against the Roman Empire).
In this region at the edge of the holy land, in this “Galilee of the Gentiles” (v. 15), Jesus begins his mission and, with this choice, indicates who are the first recipients of his light, not the pure Jews, but the excluded, the distant.
Admiring the faith of the centurion—chief of the detachment of Roman soldiers living in Capernaum—he will one day exclaim: “I tell you I have not found such faith in Israel. I say to you, many will come from the east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven; but their heirs of the kingdom will be thrown out” (Mt 8:10-11). Even the chief priests and elders will notice the surprising reversal: “The publicans and the prostitutes are ahead of you in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 21:31).
The change of residence—a very trivial fact—has been read by Matthew in its theological significance, as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light: on those who live in the land of the shadow of death a light has shone” (v. 16). With the start of Jesus’ public life, among the mountains of Galilee, the dawn of a new day shone. The light spoken by the prophet has risen.
The last verse of this first part presents the proclamation of Jesus: “Repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v. 17).
Converting oneself is not equivalent to “becoming a little better, praying better, doing more good work” but “to radically change the way of thinking and acting.” One who has cultivated projects of death must open oneself to the choices of life. One who moved in darkness must turn towards the light. Only if one is willing to carry out this change then can one enter into the kingdom of heaven (not in paradise, but in the new condition of one who chooses to risk his life on the Word of Christ).
In the second part of the passage, the calling of the first four disciples is narrated.
It’s not the account of the call of the first apostles (the four evangelists narrate the fact so diversely from each other). It is a piece of catechesis that wants the disciple to understand what it means to say “yes” to Christ’s invitation to follow him. It is an example, an illustration of what it means to be converted.
The insistence on the verbs of movement must be noted. Jesus does not stop for a moment: “As Jesus walked by the lake of Galilee … and then he went on from there … He went around all Galilee” (vv. 18,21,23).
Who is called must realize that he will not be granted any rest and there will not be any stop along the way. Jesus wants to be followed day and night and throughout life. There are no moments of exemption from commitments taken.
The answer then must be prompt and generous as that of Peter, Andrew, James and John who “immediately … left their nets, the boat and their father and followed him” (vv. 20,22).
The abandonment of one’s own father should not be misunderstood. It does not mean that anyone who becomes a Christian (or chooses the religious and consecrated life) must ignore one’s own parents. Among the Jewish people, the father was the symbol of the link with the ancestors and of attachment to tradition. And it is this dependence on the past that must be broken when it constitutes an impediment to welcome the novelty of the Gospel. The history, the traditions, the culture of every people must be respected and valued. However, we know that not all the habits, customs, and ways of life handed down are compatible with the message of Christ.
The demand of Jesus relates to the dramatic choice that the early Christians were called to do. In choosing to become disciples they were rejected by their family, misunderstood by parents, expelled from the synagogues and excluded from their people.
Even today for someone this may represent the inescapable alternative between the love of “the father” and the choice of Christ. Just think of what it takes for a Muslim, a Jew, a pagan, or a Buddhist to adhere to Christianity.
For all, however, leaving the father implies the abandonment of everything that is incompatible with the Gospel.
To the invitation to follow him, Jesus adds the charge: “I will make you fish for people” (v. 19).
The image is taken from the work done by the first apostles. They were not fishing with a hook, but with the net and their work was to pull out of the sea (so the Lake of Galilee is incorrectly called) the fish.
Now, in biblical symbolism, the sea was the abode of the devil, of diseases and everything that opposed life. It was deep, dark, dangerous, mysterious and terrible. The monsters lived in the sea, and in it, even the most skilled sailors did not feel safe.
Fishing people means to get them out of the condition of death where they are. It means to pull them out from the forces of evil that, like the raging waters, dominate, engulf and overwhelm them.
The disciple of Christ does not fear the waves and courageously faces it, even when they are raging. He does not give up hope to save a brother or a sister, even when she or he is in a humanly desperate situation: a slave of drugs and alcohol, unbridled passion, irascible, aggressive and intractable character. In whatever situation one is, he will be saved by the disciple of Christ.
The third part (v. 23) sums up with three words what Jesus does in favor of people: teaching, he is, therefore, light to every person; preaching the Good News, that is, announcing a word of hope to all, ensuring that the love of God is stronger than human evil; and curing the sick. He does not limit himself to proclaiming salvation but realizes it through concrete actions, showing the disciples what they are called to do. They must create, through the proclamation of the Gospel, a new people, a new society and a new world.
