Word of God SundayThe Promise of Salvation Under a New Davidic King.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light …
In the first act of creation, God created light and “saw that the light was good. God then separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:4) …
However, light and darkness are more than just opposites; they are symbols, metaphors, and emotional currents that have shaped our understanding of the world around us for centuries. Within the stories we tell each other, we find a natural contrast between what is seen and what is hidden, between safety and the unknown, between clarity and mystery. This duality of light and dark exists because of one’s relationship to the other … and our experiences of the two.
For those of us who have spent any time on the water at night, you will have, at some point, used lights to navigate in the dark … to find safe channels or to avoid dangerous shoals. In fact, it should come as no surprise that the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World …
Of course, there is more to Light than just helping us safely navigate our world. If we head a ways North, we will find that Light is also important for our emotional well being as well. Barrow, Alaska is 330 miles north of the arctic circle, and when winter starts it does not see daylight for sixty-seven days (source: www.alaska.org/advice/shortest-day-in-alaska). Over three months without daylight. Imagine living in a night that lasts three months long … To make everything worse, during these long nights, many people will suffer from a condition known as
Seasonal Affective Disorder (aka SAD) … and it is a debilitating form of seasonal depression where the most common treatment is full spectrum light therapy.
Today’s readings teach us that Our Lord has come to bring us light, liberty, and unity.
In today’s
First Reading, Isaiah speaks of the moment when Israel will be delivered from the prolonged darkness and oppression it has suffered as a result of its infidelity to God. So … Imagine a world shrouded in endless night—not just the absence of sun, but a darkness that seeps into the soul: fear gripping the heart, oppression weighing down the spirit, despair whispering that relief will never come.
- Now imagine the darkness giving way to a great light, symbolizing the passage from sorrow and oppression to freedom and joy.
- That moment is described as being like the joy of the harvest: a harvest is the end of a great deal of work, patience, and anxiety. You never know how the weather will fare, whether locusts are on the horizon, and so on. You work hard, but in the end you need the Lord to bring the harvest to completion.
- Isaiah also makes it clear that the great light is also a liberation from oppression and slavery, evoking … indirectly … the joy the Israelites felt when they were led out of Egypt by Moses at the Lord’s command.
- In describing the day of Midian, Isaiah is referring to the story of Gideon, in the Book of Judges (see Judges 8-9) … where Gideon defeated the Midianites with a small, select force, and credited the Lord with the victory. Isaiah uses this story to show that it is the Lord who’ll deliver Israel from oppression, not their own strength or prowess.
Today, the Church invites us to look at where that light actually lands. It does not fall where we expect it to. It falls on the messy, the ordinary, and the divided parts of our lives.
God in the "Wrong" Neighborhood
In today’s
Gospel, St. Matthew makes a point to tell us exactly where Jesus begins His public ministry. He goes to Capernaum, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, a region described as “people who sit in darkness.” … and into that darkness, a great light appears. That light is Christ Himself.
To a first-century Jewish listener, this was significant. This was "Galilee of the Gentiles." It was the crossroads of the nations—a place of commerce, mixed cultures, and diluted religious observance. It was far from Jerusalem, the center of religious purity and power. It was the "wrong" neighborhood for a Messiah to start a revolution.
The Light That Breaks Into Ordinary Life
Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled as Jesus steps into Galilee. This isn’t a grand entrance into a royal city. It’s a quiet arrival into a place considered spiritually dim, even forgotten. And yet, that’s where the light shines first.
- He comes to the periphery: Jesus did not wait for the people to come to the Temple in Jerusalem. He brought the Temple to them.
- He enters our reality: We often think we need to "clean up our act" before God can work in our lives. We think we need to be in a "Jerusalem state of mind"—holy, put-together, and pious.
- The Good News: Jesus chose ordinary people and ordinary towns. In that same way, Jesus starts in your Galilee. He steps into the parts of your life that feel chaotic, secular, or "not religious enough." That is exactly where the Light dawns.
This is a reminder that God’s work often begins where we least expect it—sometimes even in the parts of our own lives we’d rather avoid or hide.
“Come After Me” — The Call That Changes Everything
Jesus’ first public words in Matthew’s Gospel are simple and direct: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But then He does something even more striking. He walks along the sea shore, sees fishermen at work, and calls them: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
These men weren’t scholars, priests, or leaders. They were workers with nets in their hands and salt on their clothes. And yet, they dropped everything.
- The radical immediacy of the disciples’ response
- The dignity of ordinary work transformed by Christ
- The courage to leave behind what is familiar
Their “yes” wasn’t perfect, but it was real. And that was enough for Jesus to begin building His Church. Jesus doesn’t say, “Fix yourselves first.” He says, “Follow me.” The healing, the growth, the transformation come after the following.
The Mission Begins With Us
Jesus begins preaching, teaching, and healing throughout Galilee. His ministry is not confined to the synagogue. It spills into streets, homes, workplaces, and fields. The same is true today. The Gospel is not meant to stay inside church walls.
Passing the Torch
As Christians, we share in Christ's mission.
His message has continued to spread throughout history because his followers, normal men and women, like his first apostles, like us, have found ways to communicate it to the people around them, to the society in which they lived. And that brings us to our second reading …
Valuing Differences vs Division
Most of St Paul's letters were, in fact, exercises in crisis management, written in
response to crises of faith, morals, or church discipline. The passage we just heard from First Corinthians is a good example.
- Paul had founded the community there during his second missionary journey.
- As usual, he spent months gathering and instructing believers, and then appointed local leaders - the first priests and bishops - to continue his work, while he moved on to other foundations.
Only now he has received news that the community is becoming
divided.
Strife has broken out among different
cliques of believers, breaking up the family of Christians …
- Some Corinthian Christians preferred the preaching of St Paul, others of St Peter, still others different early preachers.
- St Paul reminds them that it's not the person who preaches that matters, but the person who is preached: Jesus Christ.
And so St Paul
reminds them that all Christians are called to be united in Christ, the one Lord, and
to build up their unity, never giving in to
rivalries, jealousies, or backbiting.
I want to be very clear here … it is not the diversity of the community or the differences between the faithful that Paul is upset about … it is the use of those differences to foster division and dysfunction.But let's be
honest, it is not
easy to avoid destructive and angry criticism or impassioned disagreements.
- We are fallen human beings, full of selfish tendencies.
- In today's culture, lack of respect for words has become rampant.
- It is actually normal and acceptable to use words like knives, cutting people up.
- But Christians should use words like keys - opening hearts and minds, encouraging others, building communion, speaking well of one's neighbors, or not speaking at all.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, We have received the light of faith, the flame of Christ's saving truth and grace, and now it is our turn to pass it on to others … united in mind and faith.
Comments
Post a Comment