The Unity of the Kingdom

Third Sunday of the Year. Fr John Patrick Kenrick reminds us of the universal call to preach.

One of the many contributions that Pope Benedict made to the life of the Church was to draw our attention to the need to read scripture through the eyes of faith. Pope Benedict was not opposed to the historical-critical method of reading scripture. In fact he insisted that an attention to the context in which scripture had been written is an important part of understanding it. At the same time an exclusive attention to the original context would mean that we completely lose sight of the insight of faith – that the Holy Spirit inspires both scripture and tradition. The scriptures cannot be confined to one age. Their meaning unfolds through developing Church tradition as when, for example, the evangelists refer to OT passages. Today’s reading from Isaiah is a good example.

It refers to the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali. These were two of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Zebulun and Naphtali were the first two tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel to be deported by the Assyrians in 722BC. The Assyrians also resettled these lands with people who were not Jewish. Isaiah is predicting a time when, as he puts it, ‘a great light’ will shine on these northern territories, their fortunes will be restored, God Himself will confer glory on them. It will be, says Isaiah, ‘like the day of Midian’. The Day of Midian refers to the famous battle in which Gideon defeated the Midianites and enriched Israel with all the booty he captured.

The Light That
Unites Us

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)  |  Fr Robert Verrill speaks of his personal discovery of the light of Christ’s truth, and he calls us to focus on Him who unites rather than divides.

When we lament about the divisions we see within the Church, it’s all too easy to say things that perpetuate these divisions. All too often, our lament takes the form ‘if only the laity or our leaders would stop doing X and start doing Y’. Of course, we should all want the Church to be united, for this is what Christ Himself wanted, but the great temptation is to suppose that the source of division lies somewhere else other than within ourselves.

Now lamenting about divisions within the Church is nothing new. Indeed, in the second reading from St Paul, we hear one of the earliest laments about division within the Church in its history. But what is notable about St Paul’s lament is that he doesn’t simply identify what is dividing the Church. He also points us to what is uniting the Church, namely the cross of Jesus Christ. Thus, St Paul says: “Christ did not send me to baptise but to preach the gospel, …, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.”

So, in the light of what St Paul says, we should indeed lament divisions within the Church, for divisions risk emptying the cross of Christ of its true meaning. But on the other hand, St Paul also offers us a way of overcoming division: this is to bear witness to what the cross of Jesus Christ truly means. We should therefore be asking ourselves how the cross of Jesus Christ has touched our lives, and we should have the courage to bear witness to this fact.

Galilee of the Gentiles

Third Sunday of the Year. Fr Benjamin Earl considers the significance of the place where Christ began his mission.

If you have been paying attention to the readings from St Matthew’s Gospel at Mass over the last few weeks of the Advent and Christmas seasons, it won’t have escaped your notice that the evangelist loves to make a link between prophetic texts from the Old Testament and the coming and action of Christ. Indeed, by the time we get to today’s Gospel reading, from the fourth chapter of his Gospel, St Matthew has already quoted or paraphrased passages especially from the prophet Isaiah, but also from Ruth, Chronicles, Kings, Micah, Hosea, Jeremiah, Deuteronomy, and the Book of Psalms, together with allusions to various other imagery from the Old Testament.

So it is important to understand that there is continuity between the old and the new covenants: Christ’s mission is one that continues God’s repeated calling of his chosen people. Christ completes and fulfils the story told in the Old Testament.

It follows that, in order to understand quite what Matthew is trying to say, and what Christ is doing in carrying out his preaching ministry, it’s necessary to have a certain awareness of that Old Testament story.

Today’s gospel episode, the calling of the first disciples, takes place in Galilee, albeit not in Jesus’ home town of Nazareth. Instead he moves to Capernaum, a town, we are told, on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, two of the twelve tribes of Israel.

On Leaving Our Nets Behind

Everyone who wants to follow Jesus has to leave something behind.  You can’t live a new life by hanging on to the old one.  This letting go is sometimes called Detachment.  

Detachment doesn’t mean withdrawing totally from the world, because God loves our world and Jesus wants to heal it (Jn.3:16).  But before we can help Jesus make this world a better place, we must first change ourselves. This means we must let some things go (Rom.12:2).

Too many Christians, however, are only lukewarm about their call.  They don’t want to be inconvenienced.  They don’t want to change.  So they drag their nets along after them and sometimes they get tangled up in them.  

Joseph Krempa says the problem is that we want the kingdom without changing ourselves.  ‘It’s like those who want the meal, but not the cooking; who want the grades but not the study; who want health, but not exercise; who want the salary, but not the work’.

We want all the benefits of God – the peace, the forgiveness, the growth in grace, and the sense of belonging to a spiritual community, but we don’t want to give up the nets, the entanglements that trap us, that hold us back… These are the people, the relationships and the obsessions that separate us from Christ.

Shining Light

The first pot-plant I ever owned was a coleus blumei (aka ‘Painted Nettle’). I had it long ago, but sadly it didn’t survive.

Like each of us, it needed healthy doses of sunlight, but I didn’t recognise this at the time, and it slowly perished. I’ve always regretted that.

What does sunlight do for us? It banishes the darkness; it nourishes growth, it heals and it reduces our stress and anxiety. Sunlight also offers us comfort, warmth and safety. And it shows us the way.

But there’s another kind of light we also need. It’s the interior light of faith and hope that shines in our hearts and minds. This is the spiritual light that opens us up to truth, beauty and goodness, and it fills us with joy.

Not surprisingly, light is a theme that runs all through Scripture. At the beginning, at the dawn of Creation in Genesis, God commands ‘Let there be light!’ (Gen.1:3). And at the end, in the Book of Revelation, we’re told that in heaven we won’t need the sun or the moon, because God’s glory will give us all the light we need (Rev.21:23).

Venerable Mary Glowrey

She trained nurses, midwives, doctors and administrators, not only giving them essential skills, but also the Gospel values of compassion, integrity, reverence for life, and respect for the poor.

In every sense Mary Glowrey became a ‘fisher of people,’ drawing good souls into a shared mission of mercy. She died in Bangalore in 1957.

What does all this mean for us today?

In every age, Jesus needs good people to help him spread God’s healing love. Today he is asking us, what shoreline are you prepared to leave to follow him? What nets will you leave behind – nets of fear, comfort, self-doubt or routine?

And what part of God’s Kingdom needs you today, your gifts, your vocation, your courage? Jesus wants you to play an active part in his mission.

Mary Glowrey did not do everything. But she did do what Jesus asked of her, and to the best of her ability. That is true discipleship, and that’s why she’s on the way to sainthood.

Live Out Lord

A few years ago a remarkable and very interesting man died in Japan. He was 91 years old and his name was Hiroo Onoda. Hiroo Onoda was a young soldier in World War two sent by the Imperial Japanese army to go to an island in the Philippines on December 26th 1944. Two months later the island was occupied by the Allied forces. Onoda fled to the hills. He had been given instructions never to surrender and he took these instructions very seriously indeed in those days remember.

The Japanese still regarded their emperor as a god to whom absolute loyalty was owed for the next 30 years. Lieutenant Onoda carried on the war and following his instructions meticulously never surrendered. The first time he was told that the war had actually come to an end was near the end of 1945 when a pamphlet was dropped around him. Seeing the war ended August 15th come down from the mountains already Onoda picked up the pamphlet read. It shook his head and said American propaganda he didn’t believe it then the Japanese themselves came up with pamphlets to be airlifted over the place where he was telling him that hostilities had come to an end and ordering him back home. He shook his head and said American propaganda and so he continued hiding out there and inflicting raids on the villages and towns of the island. In the early 50s they tried another tactic.

Mender of Nets

Holes develop so that some people feel they don’t have a place there and they find themselves outside that net outside the family of God. How sad when some people feel they have no place in that family. Perhaps it’s not the fault of the fish. Perhaps it is the fault of the net filled with holes. Perhaps we need Menders of Nets if you sometimes feel out of place in the net of God’s family look at the people of sacred scripture. Noah was a drunk and there was a special place for him. In the family of God. Rahab was a prostitute and there was a special place for her. In God’s family…

There is a need for every one of us. In the net of God’s love. It is the net that sometimes needs mending in the middle of the 20th century God sent a very special mender of Nets by the name of John. The 23rd. He saw that the net was in critical need of mending so he summoned together a council to do just that and showed the world that there is indeed room for all in the heart of God. There are those who cast the Nets and there are those who mend the Nets. Both are vital so that the gentlenet of God’s love May Embrace and liberate all that all may find their place their home in the family of God. 

Dive In

Sammy Lee was a Korean-American diver whose life was defined by overcoming racial discrimination through unwavering perseverance. As a 12-year-old faced with segregation at public pools, he honed his skills by practicing in a backyard sand pit, a determination that led him to win the 1942 United States National Diving Championships.

Lee went on to achieve historic success, becoming the first Asian American man to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948, eventually earning a second gold and recognition as an outstanding amateur athlete. Despite his fame, discrimination persisted, but Lee refused to be limited by it, drawing strength from his father’s advice to be proud of his identity in order to gain acceptance.