Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 3 /
Sunday /Sunday of the ‘Word of God’
Readings: Isaiah 8.23-9.3 / Psalm
27.1,4, 13-14 (R/v 1a) / 1 Corinthians 1.10-13, 17 / Matthew 4.12-23
Sisters and brothers, we are beginning the fourth
week of 2020 today. How does it feel? ‘Tired’ is the answer the seniors in SJI give
because of IB deadlines. But the juniors, fresh from orientation, keep
reminding us the year and everything about it is still new.
We associate the new or newness with beginnings and
promises. Lunar New Year celebrations remind us of this. It is a springtime celebration; our attention is naturally drawn to new buds and the
promise they bear. These will soon burst forth to bloom and blossom. Then, they
will amaze and delight many with their colour, fragrance, and beauty. A newness
awaits us.
We hear about newness in today’s gospel passage.
John the Baptist is arrested. His ministry is
finished. This marks the end to the tradition of the Old Testament prophets.
Enter Jesus. He inaugurates a new reality. Jesus calls Peter and Andrew, James
and John to become his disciples. They leave everything and follow him. No more
fishermen, they now proclaim the “gospel of the kingdom.” There is a newness to
their identity and their life’s purpose.
We also hear how humanity experiences this newness.
Men and women move from darkness into “a great light.” With Jesus’ coming, there is newness. New teaching happens now. New healing comes now. New Life is given
now. Now, a new Presence.
This is the good news we hear today: Jesus is the
new Presence in our lives.
“So, what?” some may ask. “Don’t I hear this in every
homily around this time?” they add. This is a dangerous attitude to have as Christians.
It numbs, dulls and blinds us from encountering Jesus and deepening our faith.
Today is the Sunday of the ‘Word of God’. We are
invited to strengthen our understanding of the Scriptures and so know God and
God’s actions in daily life. Our Mass readings are providential; they help us reflect
on how Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, can bring a newness to our lives, like
he did by calling the first disciples.
I often find myself asking the question “What’s going
on?” when I read Matthew’s account of Jesus calling them.
This is a question we have all grappled with. We do
whenever we experience surprises and joys or disappointments and sorrows. We do
because we trying to make sense of them. Sometimes we have an answer.
Answers are rarer when we face a future we don’t know
much about or we have no control over. This is my struggle with Jesus
calling his first disciples — they said “yes” to an unknown future fearlessly. “Will I be like them if Jesus calls?” I’ve asked
myself repeatedly. Maybe you ask this question too.
I think we struggle because we have to choose — either,
embrace an unknown future that is also new and promising or stay with the known
and the familiar and be safe.
The first disciples risked the new in their lives:
they chose Jesus. As Jesus’ disciples, we too have to risk and choose. Not once
like in Baptism or once in a while like in Lent and Advent. But daily, because
Jesus comes and calls us like he did the first disciples. Calls us to know him
more intimately, to love him more intensely, and to follow him more closely.
Jesus calls so that we can grow in discipleship with him. This must involve stepping
into a future only he knows. To do this, we need to risk anew.
Jesus walks with us to
assure us can. In death, he fell lower than we can ever fall in sin. This is
how he catches us in sinfulness and lifts us up into saintliness. The word for Jesus’
action is salvation. In and through Jesus’ saving actions we become God’s ‘new
creation’.
Do we dare risk and
choose this newness Jesus wants to give us, particularly as the future of this
year unfolds? Can we?
I suggest we can — with God’s light.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a
great light”. This is the kind of light we need to enter into the newness
of any future we face. Today, Isaiah describes how this ‘great light’
transforms, uplifts, and gives life. It does this by shinning on all who are in
darkness, whether in disappointment and regret, in sin and despair.
The future of this year awaits us. We might be anxious,
worried and fearful. While it is human to have these feelings, it is good that as
believers we want this ‘great light.’ It draws us to God. It steadies our steps
forward. It guides us onward. It emboldens us to stay the course to God.
For Matthew, Jesus is this ‘great light’. He opens
the small minds and the closed hearts of the first disciples to dream big and
to dare try. They hear Jesus’ call: they are meant for greater work than
fishing. “You’re the light of the world”. Jesus wants them to shine for others
who can then see their good deeds and glorify God (Matthew 5:14-16). This is
what newness of life with Jesus looks like.
Today Jesus is calling us to this same life as his
future for us unfolds this year. Will we let God’s light become our light so that
we, in turn, can draw others to God? Or, will we just remain the same, blinking
faintly, if not without any light?
This newness God promises us as this year begins will
happen when we allow ourselves to really encounter Jesus. The first disciples
did by the Sea of Galilee, and their lives changed. What about us?
“When we meet the Lord, we are inundated by that
love of which he alone is capable,” Pope Francis says. This love will transform
our whole life, and “the need to announce it arises spontaneously.” He adds, “It
becomes irrepressible”.*
Such proclamation evangelizes. Jesus did this when he
announced God’s Good News whenever he met and ministered to people. At the Last
Supper Jesus commanded his apostles to go and do likewise. Daily, he calls us
to do likewise too.
This is why Paul teaches Christians in the second
reading to unite with the same mind and the same purpose, and not to let personal
rivalries divide. Then, our love for one another, and more so, for others, especially
the poor, will shine as God’s light for others. Many can then see a newness in
how we care and who we care for. Here is Christian compassion alive.
How can we tell if we are living out this newness
of Christian compassion well? When others seeing how we interact with one are
touched that they say, “See how they love one another”. Is this what others
will say of us?
We cannot give what we don’t have. We have the love
of God. With Jesus, we will always experience the newness of God dwelling in
our hearts and moving us to love all. What matters now is for us to pass it on.
Passing on is about sharing and empowering, like our
seniors passing on the SJI spirit to the juniors. Passing on is also about
witnessing: we announce the Good News as our parents handed it on to us. Finally,
passing on enlightens and illuminates life. This is how Pope Francis describes passing
on: “Let your joy in the gospel be contagious so that those who see it
will recognize that this joy comes from the heavenly Father, not
you”. Joy is the fruit of letting the Word of God into our lives.
Today, we are invited to
pass on God’s light, Jesus. He is the new and radiant light dawning in our lives and in all
we share him with. It will do us good, then, now and again throughout 2020, to
recall this line we’ve all sang before: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna
let it shine!’”
Shall we?
*Pope Francis speaking at the international
meeting, “Evangelii Gaudium: The
Church which goes forth,” 28-30 November 2019.
Preached at St Ignatius Church,
Singapore
Photo: www.caringmagazine.org
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