Homily - 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

The enemies of John the Baptist had sought to silence his preaching of repentance and conversion, but the word of God cannot be silenced. As soon as John had finished his testimony, Jesus began his in the region of Galilee. Galilee was the crossroads of the world (at that time) and there was much traffic through this area. It was the area assigned to the tribes of Asher, Naphtali and Zebulon when the Israelites first came into the promised land..

Today's readings focus on the two northern territories of Israel - the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, which are two of the twelve tribes of Israel. Isaiah tells us that in the past the Lord had humbled those lands in Galilee. They were a people who had walked in the darkness of war and the shadow of violence, experiencing the hardships of oppression by their Gentile neighbors, and the horrors of being defeated and conquered. But Isaiah also prophesies that in the future God would bestow glory on these suffering lands. He says that a great light will shine upon them, and there will be a time of unbounded joy, because the warfare, the death and defeats will be ended. The rod of the oppressor will be broken, as on the "day of Midian," when Gideon - with only a very small army - was able to defeat a huge enemy army, because the Lord was with them.

It is with this promise of deliverance, made by the prophet Isaiah, that St. Matthew begins his gospel account of the public ministry of Jesus, thereby giving us his understanding of what Jesus is sent to do. Thus, Jesus appears in Capernaum as a great light in a time of darkness, to fulfill the Lord's ancient promise to liberate his people from oppression, but not simply oppression by foreign powers, but to grant us all freedom from humanity's oldest enemy - sin - and the death to which sin leads us.

And so, Jesus takes up John the Baptist's message of repentance and calls us to believe in the good news he has come to deliver. And the good news is that of peace (which is the restoration of our relationship with God), of hope (our hope of the resurrection and of heaven), of truth (which is the fact that God's word is true and reliable), of promise (that God rewards those who seek him), of immortality (that God gives everlasting life), and the good news of salvation (which is our liberty from sin and freedom to live as the sons and daughters of God). The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power and wisdom of-God: power to change and transform our lives and wisdom to show us how to live as the sons and daughters of God. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit the Lord makes it possible for us to receive his word with faith and to act upon it with trust.

In announcing the good news, Jesus made two demands: repent and believe! Repentance requires a life-change and transformation of heart and mind. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us a repentant heart; a true sorrow and hatred for sin and its consequences, and a firm resolution to avoid it in the future. The Holy Spirit gives us the grace to see our sin for what it truly is - a rebellion and rejection of the love of God. God's grace helps us to turn away from all that would keep us from his love. Faith or belief is an entirely free gift which God makes to us. Believing is only possible by grace and the help of the Holy Spirit who moves our heart and converts it to God. The Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the mind and makes it easy for us to accept and believe the truth. To believe is to take Jesus at his word, to believe that God loved us so much that he sent his only begotten Son to redeem us from the slavery of sin and death. God made the supreme sacrifice of his Son on the cross to bring us back to himself. The truth of the matter is that the love of God must surpass all else in our living and live and is that which impels us to give him our all. God wants to change our way of thinking and transform our lives by the power of his word.

And so Jesus' message is that the kingdom is near, that the Lord is drawing close to be with his people, and will act to set his people free. Jesus comes seeking a response, asking the people to turn back to God. And so, he approaches Peter and Andrew, James and John, the first of the twelve apostles, the first of the new Israel, and invites them to work with him in establishing God's kingdom - in a sense, to make the borders of God's kingdom secure. These four fishermen immediately leave their old life and commitments and follow Jesus around Galilee, as he goes about undoing the work of the oppressor, the Evil One, by curing people of their illnesses and proclaiming the Good News of the nearness of God. Through Jesus' words and. actions, the light of God shines in the darkness of people's lives.

We today, like the people of Zebulon and Naphtali, can experience our lives as vulnerable and insecure in all kinds of ways - physically, emotionally or spiritually. People experience darkness in their lives in many different forms — by being the victims of warfare, of violence in the home, of religious, sexual or racial prejudice; the oppression of extreme poverty and injustice; the burden of loneliness and a life without love; the pain of losing one's home, or health, or spouse; the sense that God is distant or that life is meaningless; the dead weight of guilt or the inability to forgive; the simple attraction of sin or addiction. All of these are modem forms of living under the rod of oppression, in a land of deep shadow.

Today's gospel challenges us to believe that the Lord is still working to set his people free and it invites us to respond - to hear Jesus calling us by name, asking us to share in his work of proclaiming the Good News and working to build up God's kingdom. All of us who are baptized are called personally to share in Christ's work of liberating others, so that all God's people may dwell secure within God's love, safe within the borders of God's kingdom. We are all invited to let the light of the Lord shine through our lives - through our words and actions - so that others may share in the joy of knowing the nearness of God and the security of God's love for us.