Thought of the Sunday
THE LIGHT OF CHRIST BEGINS TO SHINE
Isaiah 8:23-9:3, II. I Corinthians 1:10-13, 17, III Mt 4:12-23
Jesus starts his public ministry in Galilee, a land of doubting “Thomas es”, a place of people considered as the nobodies by the Jews. It’s from this place that Jesus will have to send out his disciples to the whole world. This light that shone on the Mountain in Galilee will be the same light that will shine to the Gentile.
Our Church is catholic/universal but we still have many disagreements among ourselves. We are splitting the unity in the name of forming churches that suit our egos. Christ is no longer one but in pieces. Everyone owns him according to his understanding and theology
“Sometimes God puts us in the dark to prove that He is light” (Anon)
PSALM 26
FATHER
“True to my heart’s promise, / I have eyes only for thee; / I long, Lord, for thy presence. / Do not hide thy face…/ father and mother may neglect me, / but the Lord takes me into his care.”
I am your adopted son/daughter; all of us are. If anything is written, this surely is “see how God has shown his love towards us” St. John writes. “That we should be counted his sons/ daughters” (italic are mine) and should be his sons and daughters. If the world does not recognize us, that is because it never recognized him. Beloved, we are sons/daughters of God even now, and what we shall be hereafter, has not been made known as yet. But we know that when he comes we shall be like him; we shall see him, then, as he is” (I John 3). What could be more beautiful than this assurance, from one who lived most intimately on earth with you, Lord? You have fulfilled what the psalmist divined; your care for us is greater than any on earth; your care for me is complete and intimate and personal
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
In this Sunday, we are told of the works of Jesus in Galilee with an invitation to those who will be his deacons and the whole activities that come along with ministry at a general overview/ panorama.
Like all job prescription and jurisdiction and operation, Jesus changes residence. For thirty year he has been living in Nazareth but now he moves to Capernaum, that famous place of Peter. That people that lived in darkness now have seen the great light; on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned (V.16).
Capernaum was a large city on the lake shore. It was also the capital city of Galilee. It was what we call a metropolitan city, “mixed” races and not pure Jews and Galileans were looked down upon by the Jews of Jerusalem who considered them illiterates, without proper knowledge of the law and ignorant of the traditions taught by the Rabbis. It is from here; in this “Galilee of the nations” (V.15) that Jesus begins his public ministry. This is a very great signal from Jesus that it that message is not only for the ‘pure’ Jews, but also for those who had been kept apart, far away; these last one will take precedence over the others.
Jesus tells them “repent for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand” (V.17). Conversion and repentance mean just this: “change your mind and behavior.” Whoever is harboring thoughts of death, whoever is doing evil things should turn to the light.
The vocation of the apostles is quite interesting, why? Matthew doesn’t tell us exactly how Jesus called his disciples. But that to some extent is the issue but what he wants to communicate to you and I how is calling us from the modern world of secularism, modernism and individualism, to break that shell of our comfort zones and move unto a higher great heights of life and participating in mission of the church.
Jesus keeps on moving about, never stops a moment (V.18/21). Whoever is called to be his disciples should not think of any time to rest. You have to be with the master wherever he goes, up to his final goal, the place where he will give up his life. The call of the first apostles should not be compared to the call of priests and religious; it is the call meant for every Christian. Wherever God speaks, people have to answer promptly and generously, just like Peter, Andrew, John and James. They left everything immediately to follow their master.
To abandon everything to follow Christ is to leave all those things which don’t go together with the ministry or with his word: hatred, feuds, polygamy, divination to discover who caused the death of a dear one so as to take revenge, and many other things which corrode our hearts and souls which we truly know but we simply put on a stoic face and yet they are causing our inner death each day.
A disciple of Jesus should be a fisher of men (V.19). One has to be a people person not doing what they do but helping them out of their ignorant, a good public relationship, not one who is himself/herself an obstacle to the message of the gospel. This sometimes happens in the mission that it causes moral obstacle hence difficulty in pastoral work. The water is the various life situations: illness, a mishap seen as a call from God. Sometimes the people you finish are not yours; they are God’s just do your best and leave the rest to God. (Message to vocation animators). It’s not swindling people with nice talk but snatch them from the forces of evil which, like the rushing and violent waters, take hold of them, dragging them along and overwhelming them.
The Disciples of Christ do not fear the waves of the sea and defies them even if they are very strong and stormy. You never get tired to being good to your brother or sister, even if the situation appears impossible: even if that person is a drug addict, an alcoholic, one possessed by uncontrolled passions, leading a life of corruption, a nervous, aggressive, intractable, wreck…Nothing can discourage a disciple of Christ; the one called to be a fisher of people can overcome anything.
Jesus taught that is how he was the light of all people, he preached the good news, thus bringing hope back into human hearts, when he assured them that the love of God is stronger than the evil of humankind; he cured the sick. He was not just announcing salvation; he was dispensing salvation through concrete deeds. He was showing what the disciples were to do and are called to do even today: they must fight all evils, physical or spiritual, that deprive humankind off salvation.
“With multiplicity of knowledge, there is one thing happily that no man knows: whether the world is old or young” – G.K. Chesterton
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