Third Sunday in Ordinary Time A

1.       Mossul and Fallujah. Ten years ago, we did not know these places even existed (unless we travelled a lot.) Thanks to the War and TV, we see these cities on the daily news. Zebulun and Naphtali: where are these places. Some might say, “Who knows and who cares.” We find Jesus preaching in these places in our Gospel today. The significance of these places, like Fallujah, was in the fact that they were captured by the Assyrians some 7 centuries before Christ, in 733 to be exact.

2.       At that time, Ahaz was King and Isaiah was the prophet. Zebulun and Naphtali were two of the 12 Tribes of Jacob. When they were captured, the people were in great sorrow and distress. Their sadness was a dark night over the people. However, in that darkness, Isaiah prophesies that a great light will shine in the darkness. For Isaiah, the light to shine was the successor of Ahaz, in the person of King Hezekiah.

3.       Isaiah tells the people that this light will bring great joy to the people and he describes that in three images.

The first:      it will be like the joy that the farmer has at the time of the harvest. It is a joy we have seen some times personally and we know what it is like.

The second:           will be like a joy that comes when the enemy is conquered and the victor enjoys the spoils of War. We have wars, but the only one rejoicing are the Arms manufacturers. However, in sports, it would be like Toronto winning the Grey Cup - or the Leafs winning the Stanley cup. Oops, there will be no Stanley cup this year, with no hockey.

The third will be the joy on the day of Midian. The Midianities were the most powerful and richest of the Kingdoms. But the people of Israel under the prophet Gideon defeat this might power. Today it would be like a minor club defeating the richest and most powerful New York Yankees. (Apologies to the Yankee fans)

4.       We too will find that joy - when we allow the Light to shine in our Darkness. The Gospel of Matthew was written for the Jewish Christians who still held on to their customs and their prophets of the old testament. Matthew tailored his Gospel style to these Christians. He was keen to show that Jesus was indeed all they had hoped for and Jesus was the one of whom the prophets spoke.

          So we find that Jesus is preaching according to Matthew in Zebulun and Naphtali. The Saviour today is Jesus who was prefigured by King Hezekiah of Isaiah’s time. Jesus did preach in Capernaum which is only in Naphtali, but Matthew is not too concerned with stretching that geographical detail.

          Jesus comes after John is arrested. Jesus now begins his own independent ministry. But the style of Jesus is different.  John goes into the wilderness and people come out to him. Jesus comes out of the wilderness and goes to the midst of the people.

          Jesus is the Light that we dispel our darkness. We have plenty of that in the World in which we live.

a.       We have wars, land mines, nuclear expansion - and other weapons of mass destruction.     

We will globalize the world - sacrificing nations and peoples - as long as we profit in the long haul

We will turn a blind eye to HIV/Aids in Africa, to ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, Rwanda - to genocide in Sudan

We show a carelessness and a callousness in our stewardship of the Resources of this Earth. We will burn fossil fuels, we will not stop global warming.

b.         But we have darkness among spiritual people as well.

 We struggle to keep a balance between the traditional teaching on stable marriages and a justice towards our gay community.

 We will continue to be deaf to the voiceless in our community: our women, our seniors, our youth, our minorities.

 We must show respect for our hierarchy, our church leaders who in turn must continue to imitate Jesus who washed the feet of his disciples.

 We are in darkness about the identity of our Church. Are we willing to implement the wisdom of the Vatican Council - or do we look at it as a betrayal of the identity of our Church.

c.         The darkness in the time of Paul as we read in the Second Reading may give us a clue as to how we will allow the Light of Christ to shine in our darkness. There were two areas of Darkness. The church was still grappling with an evolving doctrine about the Trinity, about Christ, about the Church itself. Mistakes were made. Mistakes were corrected. However, this was not the darkness that is referred to in the second Reading.

The second area of darkness was a result of the developing idea of the role of Jesus and the Message he preached. This led to small groups, small cliques being formed. Little groups formed under their patrons, Peter, Apollos, Paul and even Christ. Each thought that his Patron was the greatest and hence most popular. Paul just pulls the plug out of their arguments. In doing this, he shows us how to allow the Light of Christ to shine in our darkness.

Paul tells his congregation to Focus on Christ. Christ alone is God. He alone is the Light that comes into the darkness. All the others, good as they are: Peter, Apollos and Paul are mere men, mere mortals. In last week’s Gospel, we have John the Baptist making a similar statement. Jesus is the true life that came into the world. I john the Baptist am merely his herald. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.

5.         However Paul does not just stop at proclaiming Jesus as the Light. He takes this to the end. Jesus himself would say, “all those who say, Lord, Lord, will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Paul would teach what he himself had received. It was in the Cross and Resurrection that the full Order would be restored, that the darkness will be overcome.

Having received the Light of Christ, we too must become Beacons to those who continue to live in darkness.

 the homeless have been banned in Nathan Phillips Square, by those who have their comfortable beds and chauffeur driven cars. We must find an alternative to  our homeless especially in this extreme cold.

 the bigotry towards our Muslim brothers is being hardened especially since a fundamentalism is creeping up from south of the 49th latitude.

 we have opened our hearts and pocket books to the Tsunami disasters, but we have become blind to the Africa and the Aids endemic.

The task is not small, but like St. Wenceslaus and his slave after Christmas - we can trod in the footprints of Christ - and we will find in those both warmth and courage and the light to dispel our darkness.