[Salvation]

 

3rd Sunday -- To Preach, To Teach, To Heal

 

 

"I will make you fishers of men"

 

Sunday Word: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/012614.cfm

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

Job descriptions are a very important requirement when hiring someone for a new position. They provide an explanation of duties and responsibilities of employment, a description of the expectations of the employer, and the type of work that is expected by the employee.  All employers, including those in the Church, have them.  The employee is given a time of initial service when they can indeed prove if they can meet the requirements of the job for which they were hired.  No employer would simply hire someone without some description of their expectations.

 

While Jesus isn’t acting as an employer handing out job descriptions in today’s Gospel we hear him call four men from their familiar trade of fishing on the Sea of Galilee to take on a new position - something that would be well beyond what they are familiar with and something for which they will forever be remembered. He certainly doesn’t give any particulars related to his invitation.  He calls out to them, in the midst of their fishing: “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.”  It’s an interesting play on words but a call that will forever change the direction of their lives.  That’s all he says to begin with – he simply invites them to come and see.

 

Their reaction, according to St. Matthew, is immediate.  Not rejection but acceptance of that call: “At once they left their nets and followed him.” Then Jesus doesn’t stop with them.  He calls two more, also fishermen who undoubtedly Peter and Andrew knew – James and John, also brothers.  Their response is the same: “. . . immediately they left their boat . . .”

 

Was fishing so bad that day they said to themselves: “Anything is better than this so let’s see what he has to offer.” While the Gospels are not written as historical biographies but rather as testimonies to faith, Matthew may more imply the inherent charisma of Jesus and the trust of the early disciples.  Jesus' influence on people found him to be deeply mysterious and life giving.  Fishing on the Sea of Galilee in ancient times was not a glorious job.  In fact, it was a hard life; a life of subsistence from one meal to the next.  

 

Yet, these brothers may have indeed had some success – not every fisherman had his own boat, nets, and the rest.  Still, to what may have been a somewhat hopeful future for these men, Jesus’ call clearly had an influence on them. Far more than fish, Jesus’ invitation is a call to mission.  To go from fishing for fish to fishing for men implied a new direction for one’s life. So there is the call, the response, and a new direction. To follow Jesus is a leap of faith. A call to conversion - a "metanoia" of new direction.

 

St. Paul in the second reading from Corinthians firmly reminds his early Christians to beware of personality cults which have drawn them away from their original call to follow Christ: “. . . each of you is saying, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas’ or ‘I belong to Christ’ . . .” Paul fears a divisive rather than a unified Christianity and knows that baptism has placed all in the same bond of unity with Christ Jesus himself as the only one whose mission we carry out.

 

The early disciples, later to become his Apostles, realized their special and privileged mission to carry on the work of preaching, teaching and healing in Jesus’ name that we hear of in the Gospel today: “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.” As our Holy Father Pope Francis has reminded us time and time again that we are a missionary Church.  And so it is our invitation where written on every baptism certificate is our job description – preach, teach, heal.

 

So the call is both specific, given to every one of us through baptism and universal as we see our lives part of the universal mission of the Church to bear witness to the Gospel.  

 

Standing on street corners, on television or on radio all have their place in the spread of the Gospel.  Our modern day technological abilities, as Pope Francis has said, are “a gift from God.” But not everyone, obviously, is called to such public fame. Still, the work of mission goes on.

 

In the everyday witness of our lives, conformed to the gospel, we preach his message of good news: at home, in the workplace, with one’s children and spouse, in our parish life, and especially in compassion to those in need.  In the courage to stand up in love and invite others to “come and see” the Lord as Andrew did with Peter, we can teach. And in the many requests for prayer from others or volunteer time to help the elderly or sick we can heal. All as part of the mission which Jesus’ himself called us all into.

 

Our gathering at the Eucharist, then, is a gathering of missionary disciples around the Lord’s table as he welcomes us to share in his life and mission.    

 

Almighty ever-living God,

direct our actions according to your good pleasure,

that in the name of your beloved Son

we may abound in good works.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

 

(Roman Missal - Collect of Sunday)

[Salvation]

Insight Scoop

Jesus is not a mere fact, but a living invitation

"The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew" by Duccio (1311)

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, January 26, 2014 | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Is 8:23-9:3
• Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14
• 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17
• Mt 4:12-23

In the opening paragraphs of his encyclical on hope, Pope Benedict XVI observed that the Christian message of the Gospel is not just “informative”—that is, filled with good content—just also “performative.” This means that “the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open” (Spe Salvi, par 2).

Sacred Scripture can be read in different ways. One way of reading it is to sift through its contents in order to gain information about, say, moral teachings, cultural artifacts, and historical facts. We can—and should—read the Gospels in order to learn about Jesus Christ. But many people read about Jesus and never believe He is the Son of God who came to save the world. On the contrary, many people who know the Bible quite well do not believe the information contained within it is true or even helpful. As Benedict wryly noted in his book, Jesus of Nazareth, there are some biblical scholars who spend much time and effort undermining and even attacking the content of Scripture.

The opening verses of Matthew 4, which come immediately prior to today’s Gospel reading, describe Jesus being tempted by Satan in the desert. The evil one demonstrates how adept he is at quoting Scripture in an attempt to destroy Jesus. “The devil,” quipped Benedict, “proves to be a Bible expert who can quote the Psalm exactly” (Jesus of Nazareth, 35). Likewise, Jesus was often persecuted most intently by scribes whose lives were devoted to reading and interpreting the Law of Moses.

Today’s Gospel recounts that Jesus, following the temptation in the desert, withdrew to region of Galilee. He likely did this, on one hand, out of practical necessity, avoiding the possibility of being arrested and killed as John the Baptist had been. But Matthew explains that Jesus, in spending time in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, also brought light—that is, the good news about the Kingdom of heaven—to an area described in terms of “darkness” and “death.” Many centuries prior, around 900 B.C., these two regions, which were to the west and north of the Sea of Galilee, had been conquered by Syria. Nearly two hundred years later they were invaded and annexed by the Assyrians, and most the Jews residing there were taken into exile and replaced with pagan settlers.

It is estimated that in the time of Jesus about half of the population in Galilee was Gentile, hence the name “District of the Gentiles” used by Isaiah in today’s Old Testament reading. Into this land of darkness and death—most likely a reference to the pagan beliefs and practices common to those regions—came the light of Christ. The public ministry of Jesus began with the proclamation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is the same message John the Baptist preached in the wilderness of Judea (Matt 3:1); the essential difference is the messenger. Whereas John proclaimed the Kingdom and the way of salvation, Jesus is the King and the way of salvation. John’s preaching was informative, but it could not ultimately perform what it pointed toward: the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of souls.

John’s Gospel indicates many of Jesus’ disciples had first been followers of John the Baptist (Jn 1:35-37). These men were probably somewhat familiar with Jesus prior to being called to be “fishers of men.” When the proper time came and they were called away from their boats and livelihood, they immediately followed. The message of Jesus was not, for them, merely information, but a way of living and being. The person of Jesus was not a mere fact, but a living invitation to come into saving communion with the King and His kingdom. Today, the Lord calls us as well—from darkness to light, from death to life, from being fishermen to becoming fishers of men.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the January 27, 2008, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)