3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A); 1-26-20

Is 8:23-9:3   Ps 27   1 Cor 1:10-13,17   Mt 4:12-23

Deacon Jim McFadden

 

Today’s gospel reading from Matthew recounts the beginning of Jesus’ preaching in Galilee. He leaves his hometown Nazareth, an obscure village in the mountains, and settles in Capernaum, an important trading center on the lakeshore. This place of economic commerce was at the crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Mesopotamian inland, which today would include Iraq. It’s interesting that Jesus did not begin his preaching in Jerusalem, which is the hub of Jewish worship.   Rather, he begins in a place largely occupied by pagans. Seen from the vantage point of the capitol Jerusalem, the land of Capernaum was at the periphery and was religious impure because it was inhabited by non-believers who were intermingled with those who belonged to Israel. Great things weren’t expected from Galilee for the history of salvation. Nonetheless, that’s exactly where our Lord began to preach—precisely in the periphery. In other words, the Light of Christ radiated from the periphery.

O.K., what’s all of this got to do with us in 2020? Plenty. To begin with, despite the vast number of churches that dot the landscape of America, we are living in a post-modern, secular culture that strives to reduce religious Faith to a private enterprise detached from the real affairs of people in the political, economic, and social domains. At best, the secular landscape we occupy in the peripheries is indifferent to religion and, in many cases is openly hostile to it. The presumption of our culture is that you do not need God to be fulfilled, but that you can make yourself happy by acquiring the goods of the world—that if you consume enough stuff, acquire status and prestige through your accomplishments, enjoy a cornucopia of pleasure especially of a sexual nature, and, above all, exert your individuality and freedom from constraint, then you will be happy. This, of course, is a Big Lie, which does great damage to the human heart because as St. Augustine said in the 4^th century: the heart is hardwired for God—“Our hearts are made for you and will be forever restless until they rest in you.” No amount of goods can satisfy this longing of our heart, which is why this secular ideology is deadening because it goes contrary to the spiritual structure of the human heart.

So, Jesus is going to proclaim the Kingdom of God, which was at the very heart of his teaching and preaching. He not only is going to proclaim the Good News, he seeks companions to join him in this salvific mission. And, this is where you and I come in. At our Baptism, we were grafted onto Christ; we become members of this holy living organism which is his mystical Body, the Church. We were anointed as priest, prophet, and king to carry on his Mission. He calls Simon and Andrew, he calls you and I, and says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). Jesus wants helpers to assist him in fishing people out of this morass of self-absorption, individualism, and an exaggerated sense of freedom that is detached from the Father’s will. The Old Consciousness has to be deconstructed before we can embrace the New Consciousness of the Good News.   This is the call up and down the ages.

And, where is this call received? Right in the middle of their daily, ordinary experience. The Lord does not approach us in a dramatic or extraordinary way as if he were some kind of Super Action Figure from Marvel Comics. But, Jesus comes to us in our ordinary circumstances of our life. And, it is precisely right there that we discover the Lord. He reveals himself just as he did to Elijah in the gentle breeze. There he makes his love felt in our heart—in so doing, he changes our stony heart to a heart of flesh. What is our response: are we going to live out our baptismal promises and help Jesus carry out his Mission or not?

Let’s look at how the four fishermen responded: “Immediately they left their nets and followed him (v. 20). Thanks to them, we’re Christians. Today, we have the joy of participating in the divine life of the Trinity, we have the joy of proclaiming and witnessing to our Faith because these fishermen said “yes” to Jesus and followed him. These ordinary fishermen were humble and courageous because they were willing to leave everything—their nets which is a metaphor for their work and even their father Zebedee—to generously respond to Jesus’ call.

On the shores of this lake, in a land of the periphery, the first community of disciples was born. May the knowledge of these humble beginnings give rise to the desire in our heart to bear witness to Jesus’ Word in a pagan, secular culture. Let us be generous and tender in whatever context we find ourselves, even those that are difficult, contentious, resistant, and polarizing. It’s our turn: let us bring the Good News to the peripheries of our society. There is no God-forsaken place. Every place and time of human living is the soil in which we can cast the seeds of the Gospel, so that they can bear the fruit of salvation.

Let us respond joyfully to Jesus’ call! Let us be fishers of men! Let us go to the peripheries! Amen.