We Are Called!

Blessed are those who have been called! And, we Are Called! This is a
powerful message found in the scripture readings of this Sunday (the 3rd
Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A).

This Sunday, the 3^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A, the scripture readings (Isaiah 8:23-9:3; 1 Corinthians 10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23) come with a two-fold theme: Calling and Unity. Calling is emphasized in the Gospel reading, echoing the first reading, while unity is emphasized in the second reading. In a way, we are called to bring unity, which is one of Christ’s ultimate missions. 

It is sin, an influence of demon, which literally means “divider” ( stemming from the Greek word, “δαίω”(daio)). So, what demons (devil, Satan) doe is to divide us and separate us from God and disperse us, like sheep scattered without a shepherd. That’s what our sins do, not helping God but only helping demons. Divisions have been a problem ever since Adam and Eve had committed Original Sin, losing the Paradise. Ever since the division wedged in between God and the humans, resulting in the eviction of Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, the humans have been suffering from consequences of sins. Stories in the Old Testament describe the struggles with sins over many generations before the arrival of Jesus. 

In response to sins of the humans, suffering of divisions, God sent many prophets to help the humans repent and turn back to God. Yet, even repented and returned to God, the humans drifted away from God soon, until facing another judgement by God. So, finally, God decided to send Godself, to the humans. And, that’s how God came into this world in the human flesh, as Jesus the Christ. His mission to incarnate in the Son, Jesus the Christ, is, of course, to shepherd us back to Him through penance, through Jesus the Christ, for the restoration of the God-human unity. This  unity to be achieved is, indeed, salvation. The world salvation comes from the Latin word, “salus”, which means “safety”, “welfare”,  “health”. Figuratively, salvation indicates the fullness – the state in which nothing is lacking or separated. So, you can get an image of the fullness and unity – everything is all together – in salvation. 

God bring us back to the fullness and unity of salvation, where there is true safety and wellness, while God’s enemy, demons try to put divisions not only among us but also between God and the humans, through our sins, tapping into our weaknesses. 

With this mission-oriented message of this Sunday’s scripture readings, let’s also review the readings in light of liturgical calendar spectrum since its beginning with Advent through Christmastide, which ended with the 1^st Sunday of Advent, in commemorating the Baptism of Jesus. Let’s also look into the theme of “calling” not only in light of the first reading but also the historical context, as well.

If you follow the Sunday Gospel readings since the beginning of this liturgical year (Advent), calling makes sense at this point in the liturgical calendar.  Because it is about time that Jesus starts calling for collaborators of his ministry, as he was already commissioned through his own baptism (Gospel reading theme for the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Matthew 3:13-17), and as his identity, as the Lamb of God, was identified (Gospel reading theme for the 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, John 1:29-34). 

In case you have wondered, if I have forgotten to mention the 1^st Sunday of Ordinary Time, please know that the 1^st Sunday of Ordinary Time coincides with the feast Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord, because this feast Sunday is the Sunday after the feast of Epiphany, which marks the end of Christmastide (the 12 days of Christmas).  As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, the Roman Rite, since 1970, has extended the Christmastide until the feast Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord (the 1^st Sunday of Ordinary Time). 

Following Jesus’ life span, we understand that, through his baptism, Jesus became ready to take action on his own calling, embarking on the salvific ministry the Father in heaven has commissioned to him. To indicate the commissioning, the Father opened the heaven and sent the Holy Spirit upon His beloved Son, Jesus (Matthew 3:16) and claiming that Jesus is His beloved and expressing His joy in commissioning to execute His salvific plan (Matthew 3:17). Reading this on the feast Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord , we read John the Baptist’s identification of Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) last Sunday (the 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time).

In a way, this Sunday’s first reading invokes an anticipatory sense of Advent. In the first reading, Prophet Isaiah says that a great new light will be seen by the people who walk in darkness, poetically and metaphorically prophesizing the coming of the Messiah in the areas where darkness was for more than 600 years after the Assyrian invasion – the land of Zubulun and the land of Naphtali.

Though we are no longer in Christmas mode now, it is helpful to approach this Sunday’s scripture readings theme in the spectrum from Advent through Christmastide. 

When the new liturgical year (Year A)  started with Advent, spending four Sundays, following the Christ the King week, which ended the previous liturgical year (Year C), we prepared for the coming of Christ, the Messiah, saying “Maranatha!”, and repenting our sins, as inspired by John the Baptist.

For the first three Sundays, the Advent Gospel readings were about how John the Baptist was anticipating the coming of Christ, as we prepared his arrival. On the fourth Sunday of Advent, the Gospel reading’s focus shifted more on Jesus in relation to Mary and Joseph, rather than inn relation to John the Baptist, as it was about how Mary conceived Jesus and how Joseph at first struggled with Mary being pregnant before their nuptial union, to signal that the arrival of the Messiah is very near.

And, indeed, the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas, comes during the week of the 4^th Sunday of Advent, affirming a theme of the 4^th Sunday of Advent Gospel reading: a coming of the Lord is very near!

Jesus is the light (John 8:12). And, it was dark when he came into this world – out of Mary’s womb in the cold stable near Bethlehem. Besides the darkness of dawn, it was the spiritual and moral darkness that plagued Jerusalem and the entire Judea, the great new light broke into, when Jesus was born. Of course, the great new light is Jesus the Christ. 

Now, with this review of the scriptural themes from Advent to Christmas – how we have longed for the great new light, the Messiah, in the spiritual and moral darkness, saying “Maranatha” and repenting, we can better appreciate how the first reading (Isaiah 8:23-9:3) supports the Gospel reading (Matthew 4:12-23). 

So, the first reading begins with the tone of darkness, as it opens with these words: First the Lord degraded the land of Zubulun and the land of Naphtali. The land of Zubulun and the land of Naphtali were originally given to the 6^th son of Jacob (Israel), Naphtali, while the land of Zubulun was given to the 10^th son of Jacob. But, these lands suffered greatly due to the Assyrian attacks more than 700 years before the birth of Christ. The Israelites living in these lands were deported far into the Assyrian Empire and became wondering people. These tragic invasions and deportations took place more than 100 years before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. Biblically, these events are considered as God’s judgements upon unrepentant Israelites’ sinfulness and defilement. 

By the time Jesus was born, the Assyrians were long gone, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali had never been to the level of prosperity that Jacob, who gave these lands to Zebulun and Naphtali, suffering from the Assyrian assaults. 

On the banks of the Jordan River, John the Baptist preached to repent in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Now, after his baptism (Matthew 3:13-17) in the Jordan River, having been tested by Satan in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11), and upon John the Baptist’s arrest by King Herod (Matthew 4:12), Jesus came to a small fishing town by the Sea of Galilee, Capernum, to preach to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 4:13-17). The Luke’s Gospel also describes that Jesus went to  Nazareth in the land of Zebulun to preach out of the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah (believed to be Isaiah 61:1-2 on the Messiah) in the synagogue but was furiously rejected by the people there , following his baptism and desert experience (Luke 4:14-30). Then, Jesus went to Capernum in the land of Naphtali on Sabbath, teaching, driving out evil spirit, and surprising the people there (Luke 4:31-37).

So, the Advent was to anticipate the coming of the Messiah, preparing for his arrival, with John the Baptist’s advice of penance. This anticipatory sense near the coming of Jesus to this world (Advent theme) has been echoed in the Gospel readings for the fest Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord (Matthew 3:13-17) and the first reading for the 3^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Isaiah 8:23-9:3), as Jesus is coming to the Jordan River for his own baptism to begin his salvific ministry from the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. What used to be these lands of Jacobs’s sons, Zebulun and Naphtali, become the region of Galilee, at the time of Jesus.  

Until Jesus was baptized and began his ministry, it was when baptism by water was only mean for penitential cleansing. 

Following the Advent weeks of anticipating, on the first day of Christmastide (the 12 days of Christmas), the Messiah, whom we were waiting for, finally came in Bethlehem of the land of Judah, south of the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. This is how the light first appeared, witnessed by shepherd, who saw the bright star, on Christmas morning and later witnessed by the Magi on Epiphany, who were led by the star to find Jesus. Basically, after spending some time in Egypt for safety from King Herod’s massacre of male babies, Jesus grew up in Nazareth in the land of Zebulun rather quietly, during the period reflected in the rest of the Christmastide Gospel readings. 

Then, when he was about 30, he came to the Jordan River, where his cousin, John the Baptist was baptizing many for repentance, and was baptized, not because he had sin but to be commissioned to begin his ministry – to bring the fresh new light to the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, beginning to reveal his Messianic identity, as the Lamb of God, through his teaching and actions. So, these the themes for the Gospel readings for the Baptism of the Lord Sunday and the 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary time to prepare us to the 3^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Gospel reading. 

And, this is the historical and social background behind Jesus’ arrival to these lands in the Gospel narrative for the 3^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Matthew 4:12-23).

To look at this background of the 3^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time with the Advent-Christmastide spectrum, the light, Jesus, first appeared in Bethlehem of the land of Judah, the 4^th son of Jacob. The land of Judah is located in the south of the land of Zebulun and in the land of Naphtali, as Bethlehem is south of Nazareth and Capernum. This was Christmas, the very first day of the Christmastide (the 12 days of Christmas).

Nazareth, where Jesus grew up with Mary and Joseph, after being born in Nazareth and returned from Egypt to avoid King Herod’s massacre, is in the land of Naphtali, and Capernum, where Jesus begins his public ministry by calling Peter, Andrew, James and John, to follow him. And, upon recruiting his Apostles, Jesus will also return to Nazareth to preach and to be rejected.  So, this is the setting of the 3^rd Sunday Gospel story.

It helps us to understand this historical and social background for this Sunday’s Gospel story, in connection with the First reading, as well as the Advent-Christmastide spectrum. This way, we can really appreciate many historical and social, as well as metaphorical factors, behind this Sunday’s scripture readings. 

Now, it is also important to reflect the scripture readings themes upon our own life circumstances.

There is a very powerful message from this Sunday’s scripture readings to put on us: We are also called to follow Jesus, just as Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John in the land of Naphtali, to start bringing the light from Galilee, which was the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, moving southward, into the land of Judah, to Jerusalem.  Toward Easter, we will follow Jesus’ journey with his disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem. 

Again, we are called, just as Jesus’ disciples, such as Peter, Andrew, James and John, were called in Galilee.  

What have we been called for by our commander, Jesus? 

One sure thing is for unity, which Paul, whom Jesus called to serve him in a very unique way, different from the way he called the Twelve Apostles.  So, some of us may find Jesus’ calling very unconventional ways. 

Whatever the way Jesus is calling, we must pay attention to what he is calling us for and follow him by following his commands. 

The most important command of Jesus is to love, and to love is to saw seeds of unity, which leads to salvation – the safety and welfare in the fullness, like the state where all sheep are in with the shepherd, being in full light.