Sunday word, 26 Jan 20

3^rd Sunday of the Year (26 Jan 2020)

Is 8 .23-9. 3; Ps 27; 1Co 1. 10-13, 17; Mt 4. 12-23

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J., Full Spiritual Exercises

New Possibilities

Early last autumn Pope Francis gave new focus to the 3^rd Sunday of the Year; he declared it “Sunday of the Word of God…devoted to the cele-ration, study and dissemination of the word of God.”¹ Francis phrased his description well: 

A day devoted to the Bible should not be seen as a yearly event but rather a year-long event, for we urgently need to grow in our knowledge and love of the Scriptures and of the risen Lord, who continues to speak his word and to break bread in the community of believers.²

You have retreated to be with God. Scripture is the privileged doorway by which God communicates to us, and we contemplate God’s self-communication. In Ignatian praying time with scripture regularly is a life-changing event. The effect can be a sea-change; to stay with the maritime metaphor: often Ignatian praying is our daily course-correction, drawing us nearer to our triune God, who is both our Goal and our Beloved.

Praying as course-correction alerts us to the journey that each disciple’s life is. Journeys always involve preparation and frequent monitoring. The scriptures alert us to new possibilities, self-awareness and growing unity. Growing  familiarity with the word offers us new awareness about God that John and Jesus offered, namely, God is near us tenderly.

After John’s successful ministry was forcibly stopped—he had been arrested—Jesus came into his ministry and realized he needed to leave home to minister effectively. Galilee was a good, strategic choice. Once the territories named had been attached to a foreign realm; by Jesus’ time the seaward road bustled with trade and Gentiles as well as Jewish residents. Also Galilean Jews were very observant; Galilee  was the “heart and soul of Jewish learning from the first and second century onwards;”³ Jewish Galileans were the “most religious Jews in the world in the time of Jesus”;⁴ they were more open to change,⁵ important because Jesus began as John did: Metanoia yourselves; Change your hearts; Reorient your lives! New awareness and metanoia mean greater fidelity to God not less.

The method of Jesus’ ministry from the first was gathering. Jesus gathered others by his speech and more by his deeds. His gathering was healing, joining, unifying. Near the sea Jesus gathered fisherman as his associates. They knew how to gather fish, Jesus would empower them to gather humans; not to confine but to impart healing forgiveness as well as his life—and this for everyone in every age.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians reminds us that early in the Jesus-movement some felt it was not enough to belong to Christ crucified. The cross was a shameful instrument of torture and death; no one would link it with divine care; better to associate oneself with an eloquent leader. We are not so different: we wear a cross with pride and are hard-pressed to appreciate its scandal, let alone how God works toward the good with everything. Our societies lure us with eloquence to set ourselves apart with every new-and-improved product or to be defined by our societies.

Jesus did not merely talk, Jesus acted. He invites us to notice him acting in us and for us. As we notice, we feel Jesus incorporate us anew into his Body, his world, his living creation; and we fall more in love with our “risen Lord, who continues to speak his word and to break bread in the community of believers.”

                          Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

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1. His letter, “INSTITUTING the SUNDAY of the WORD OF GOD,” 3.
2. Instituting, 8.
3. L. Michael White, Galilee: Portrait of Jesus’ World.
4. Ray Vander Laan, Rabbi and Talmidim.
5. Eric Meyers, Galilee: Portrait of Jesus’ World.

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Wiki-images by: Mark Nakasone from Haifa, Israel, Capernaum harbour  CC BY 2.0; Jesus calling Peter and Andrew PD-US