DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isaiah 8, 23b-9,3; Psalm 26; 1 Cor 1, 10-13.17; Matthew 4,12-23; 3rd Sunday of the Year A, Jan 26, 2020)
The first reading opens by declaring that in the past days the Lord humbled the lands of Zebulon and Naphtali. The Northern Kingdom underwent two Assyrian invasions. The first one was in 732, in which Tiglat Pilezer deported some inhabitants of Naphtali into Assyria. The second, more complete, ended with the capture of Samaria giving rise to general deportation of the populace and the annexation of the territory. The prophetic oracle contained in today’s first reading focuses on the reestablishment of David’s kingdom by God. After the collapse of the northern kingdom, the provinces that constituted it will see a glorious epoch as the prophecy holds. The snag here is the fact that Isaiah was a prophet of the Southern Kingdom and the saviour boy announced by him would reign over the throne of David in the Southern Kingdom. However, we know from the Gospel that only in Jesus does this prophecy find its fulfilment. He is, at the same time, the heir of David and the one who spreads the light on the northern part of Israel as he commences his ministry.
The content of the Psalm is the summary of biblical spirituality preached by the prophets. It holds that however discouraging our misery could be, one thing is certain: the Lord, in his goodness, will make us live in his home. And this is the hope we give vent to in the expression: the Lord is my light and my salvation.
The second reading clearly shows that there are disputes and cliques in the church at Corinth. There, people sided one or the other ministers or preachers of the word and Paul was wondering if this or that preacher was the one who was crucified for the salvation of men. For him Christ is not divided and, through his cross, he has acquired the right over everyone. He is the only principle of unity; everything else is rhetoric.
The gospel pericope is a prologue to the ministry of Jesus, an indication that the messianic prophecies are about to be fulfilled: The kingdom of heaven is near. Matthew was a tax collector who worked for the occupying power, collecting taxes; he was a bona fide member of this Galilee of the Gentiles where Jesus reveals himself as the light that drives away darkness : the people immersed in darkness has seen a great light (echo of Is 8,9). Here in Galilee, most of the native Israelites were deported to Assyria, pagans population replaced the deportees giving rise to mixed population that was less religious than the people in the kingdom of Judah. The light will reach it before Jerusalem. The call of the first four apostles is the beginning of a new history, of a purely spiritual conquest. It concerns simple men, available to Jesus’ voice. God’s method, is completely, different from that of the powerful of this world.
Jesus calls all of us to conversion as he begins to preach by saying: Repent, for the kingdom of the heaven is close at hand. This Jesus’ saying, which had a particular meaning at the beginning of his preaching, is always current and also requires an answer from us. Though this is the meaning of the penitential act with which we begin the celebration of Mass, why would it be useful to recognise oneself as sinners before God and to our brothers and sisters without the sincere will to change, to convert? By reflecting on the readings of this Sunday, with reference to this warning that comes from Jesus, we can indicate a triplicate goal to which conversion aims: the light of truth, joy and hope, unity and harmony. In practical terms this would mean being converted to Christ, the divine light that came into the world, the cause of true joy and sustainer of our hope and bond of charity, unity and harmony.
Conversion to Christ the true light that comes from heaven: The people saw a great light. In historical circumstances difficult to specify, but certainly of serious difficulties for the kingdom of Israel (to which the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali belonged), which fell largely under the rule of the Assyrians, and for the small kingdom of Judah, threatened in her independence, Isaiah promises liberation and prosperity. Perhaps this prophetic oracle refers to the birth or the ascent to the throne of a new king. In any case, the prophecy did not come true then in those terms, but must be seen, in the context of the biblical tradition, with reference to the messianic age. This is what Matthew means by bringing back a stretch of the page of Isaiah that is proposed to us today. Let us read it in Matthew's text: The people immersed in darkness have seen a great light; on those who dwelled on earth and shadow of death a light has risen. The image of light is one of the most familiar to the Bible, of the Old and New Testaments. It accompanies and closely follows the birth of Jesus. An angel of the Lord presented himself before the shepherds who kept watch at night guarding their sheep and the glory of the Lord enveloped them with light (Luke 2,9). Simeon sees in the child whom he holds in his arms, the light to illuminate the people (Luke 2,32). He came into the world, with this expression, John prepares the announcement of the Incarnation of the Word, the true light, which illuminates every man. And earlier, he said: In him was life and life was the light of men (John 1, 4.9). Light calls up truth to the mind: Send your truth and your light (Psalm 42,3); Whoever works in truth comes to light, says Jesus, (John 3,21). The prophetic announcement of a great light seen by the people immersed in darkness, and of a light that rose on those who dwelled on earth and in the shadow of death, is an invitation to turn ones eyes to that light, and to behave, following Paul's exhortation, as the children of light. It is to be noted that the fruit of light consists in kindness, justice and charity (Ephesian 5,8-9). The Lord is my light and my salvation, chants the responsorial psalm. Jesus will say to his obstinate adversaries who refused to believe in him: The light is still for a short time and with you. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness does not surprise you; those who walk in darkness do not know where they are going. While you have the light believe in the light, to become children of the light (John 12,35-36). Whoever goes after Jesus walks in the light: I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8,12). We must be converted to the light, seeking the truth in the word of God, faithfully believing and living our faith consistently/coherently. We need to be converted to the light by following Jesus who calls everyone, as he called the first disciples, each according to his plans of wisdom and love.
Conversion to Christ, the foundation of our joy and sustainer of our hope: You multiplied the joy, you increased the joy. They rejoice in front of you as you rejoice when you reap the rich harvest and how you rejoice when you divide the prey. Joy is nourished by hope, and this is what keeps the psalmist going and as well sustains him: The Lord is the defence of my life, whom am I afraid of? He offers me a place of refuge on the day of misfortune ... Hope in the Lord, be strong, strengthen your heart and hope in the Lord. St. Paul expresses it in the wish that he addresses to the Romans: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith, so that you abound in hope for the virtue of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15,13). If palpable joy, that which presupposes the absence of pain, is not always possible, for the Christian, there is another type of joy that is possible for him. This is the joy that comes from God, which is founded on faith, diffused in the soul by Holy Spirit, father of the poor, giver of gifts, light of hearts ..., in toil, rest, heat, shelter, in tears, comfort (sequence of Pentecost), which radiates from the cross of Christ. Such a hope does not disappoint, because it is founded on the love of God which is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom has been given to us (Rom 5, 5). It is a hope that has, as its object, the kingdom of heaven foretold by the prophets and announced by Jesus. Therefore, it is not limited to temporal well-being: If we have had hope in Christ only in this life, we are to be most pitied among all men (1 Cor 15,19). But the horizon of present life, for the individual and society in general, is not excluded from Christian hope, far from it! In fact, we toil and fight because we have placed our hope in the living God (1 Tim 4,10). This affirmation of the apostle applies to all human commitment. Paul VI strongly recalls the duty to announce the liberation of millions of human beings ..., the duty to help this liberation to spring up, to testify it, and to regard it as absolute (Evangelii nuntiandi, 30). The admonition of the Council is always timely: Yes, we are warned that nothing benefits man if he gains the whole world and loses himself. However, the expectation of a new land must not weaken, but rather stimulate concern in the work related to the present earth, where that body of new humanity grows which already manages to offer a certain prefiguration that overshadows the new world (Gaudium et Spes, 39). Let us therefore aspire to hope! A hope that keeps us in peace, that opens us to joy, that stimulates us to commitment, that makes us sowers of hope in the midst of the brothers who need it so much, who feel the weight of restlessness, tormented between hope and anguish (Gaudium et Spes, 4).
Conversion to Christ the bond of charity, unity and harmony.
Some worrisome news reached Paul, while preaching the Gospel in Ephesus, through a certain Cloe, (a Christian from Corinth). Paul first thanked the Lord who had enriched that community with all the gifts, those of the word and those of science, that made it possible that the testimony of Christ was firmly established in them (1 Cor 1,4-6). Then he went on to deplore the discord which divided the hearts, at least of some of them, preventing the perfect union of thought and intent. In the church of Corinth parties had formed which claimed to be based on Paul, and on Apollo, an erudite and eloquent preacher who had also been in Corinth, some on Cephas (Peter), perhaps because of the authority that was universally recognised to him, and some to Christ. Paul vigorously attacked these divisions positing that the only one who counts in the Church is Christ who was crucified for all and in whose name every Christian was baptised, and this Christ is only one. Therefore, everyone should be united in him in faith and love. He went on to hold that claiming to be for Paul or Apollo betrays mere human way of thinking for these men were only ministers through whom the Corinthians came to faith and each even according to the design of the Lord. Conceding human involvement in planting the seed of the gospel and in watering it, Paul also emphasised that it was still God who made it grow. For Paul, neither those who plant, nor irrigate count except God who made it grow (1 Cor 3 4-7). Going further on his exposition on the unity of Christians, Paul illustrates it with the image of the body, which "although it is one, has many members and all the members, while being many, make up only one body, and God has so willed that there was to be no disunity in the body, rather various members should take care of one another. This is a recurring theme in Paul, which echoes and illustrates Jesus' insistent wish on the eve of his death, that all who believes in him be one following the example of unity between him and God the Father: Like you Father are in me and I in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17,21). Let us reflect upon the following facts: How much there is need for communion, and unity within the Catholic Church, often torn by divisions and discord, like the first Corinthian community, far from the perfect union of thought and intent! How much is needed among all the inheritors in Christ, for the promotion of the ecumenical movement, which must be everyone's commitment, in witness, prayer, and action! Isn't the cup of blessing that we bless communion with the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not a communion with the body of Christ? Since there is only one bread, although we are many, we are one body: in fact we all participate in the only bread (1 Cor 10, 16-17). Paul's call to the Corinthians also applies to us. May the Eucharist stimulate us to communion, and may it become both a catalyst and bond of unity. In today’s Eucharistic Celebration, Christ the light, joy and hope of our Christian life and as well as the principle of unity, love and harmony extends to you and me the call to be his disciples, be united to him, have one mind and heart with him, alight our thoughts and, therefore, our actions to his. May we, therefore, like the disciples in today’s gospel story, respond positively and joyfully without hesitation to the invitation to be disciples of Jesus so as to be in diverse circumstances of lives veritable instruments in the hand of God in dispelling darkness, offering joy and hope to the depressed and functioning as catalysts of love, harmony and unity in both the society at large and in our various Christian communities. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye
