Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/012311.shtml
As we know, our Sunday Liturgies follow a three year cycle. This year, the Readings for the first three Sundays of Ordinary Time relate to each other.
Last week, we heard from the Gospel of John, John’s version of the encounter between Jesus and John the Baptist. We understood it to be far less dramatic than the version found in the other three Gospels. In John’s Gospel, there is no opening of the sky following Jesus’ baptism by John and the voice of God declaring to all present “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased.” Indeed, the only element in common was John’s seeing the Spirit of God descending and resting upon Jesus in the form of a dove. And John then declares Jesus to be “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
The manifestation of God here was simple, and I asked the people to reflect on how we as members of the Body of Christ “manifest” God to others, that they may come to recognize Jesus as John did.
This Sunday, I believe the theme to be similar but perhaps reversed – God’s manifestation to us.
Here the Gospel Reading (coming from the Gospel of Matthew) is divided into two parts.
In the first part, Jesus is presented as beginning his ministry in Galilee, in part to fulfill the prophesy of Isaiah that the people in that region “who lived in darkness will see a great light.” However, it follows the trajectory that Jesus made himself known (manifested himself) subtly beginning at the edge of the land of Israel and only slowly made his way to the center.
Galilee in relation to Jerusalem could be imagined as Hegewisch, the neighborhood south of us here in Chicago and the last one before we leave the City of Chicago completely. There’s nothing wrong with Hegewisch. It’s just at the edge of the city actually about the same distance from the Daley Center in the center of Chicago as Galilee was from Jerusalem. Hegewisch even has a lake bordering it named “Wolf Lake” which one could imagine to be something like the Sea of Galilee. (Maybe Chicago is a little smaller than the land of Israel, but the comparison is closer to the truth than one would initially think).
Anyway, Jesus began his ministry in “Hegewisch” that is to say in Galilee as far from the center of Biblical Israel as one could get without completely leaving the country altogether. And that is where Jesus began to make himself known (to manifest himself). He didn’t begin this process in the center (at the Temple – in our case on Daley Plaza by City Hall). He began it in Hegewisch (Galilee). Hence Jesus' self-Revelation to the people of Israel came slowly and is expected to come slowly to us as well ...
***
Now the second part of the Gospel Reading tells us something more, though along the same lines. Here we hear of Jesus’ call of his first four disciples who would also become his Apostles – Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and James and his brother John. He called them as he walked along the side of the Sea of Galilee (like our "Wolf Lake") and they were in the _process of coming back from fishing_.
It is noteworthy here that Jesus encountered and called them as they were both coming back from an event of their day-to-day lives (again, nothing spectacular, no miracle, no fireworks...), and coming back from something that they probably _loved to do_, that is, coming home from having gone fishing.
Now not every man likes to fish. But enough do, across all cultures and all time, to make the experience relatable to just about everyone.
Fishing is relaxing, fishing is social – often one goes with one’s friends to fish. Sometimes the fishing even becomes “besides the point" (I've always enjoyed the fact, that Jesus' disciples rarely caught any fish, when they went fishing ... the socializing apparently more important). But in the end, when one finally does go fishing, one becomes silent, "becomes alone" and has time then for reflection.
And at the end of their time of fishing that these four people encounter Jesus who calls them out of their previous day-to-day lives (out of their boats) and they begin their journey with him.
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The encounter described involves “fishing.” But I would submit that it could have come at the end of _any_ activity or event that we love.
And I would submit that if we thought about it, we would find ourselves closest to God doing things, or on completion of things that we love to do.
Think about it: When have you felt closest to God? The circumstances would usually be simple and involve something that we love to do. And it makes sense that God would call us there.
The journey of course only begins there and it will hopefully eventually lead us here, where we come together each Sunday to encounter God in the Scriptures and then in the Eucharist (again, actually both very simple things, but now done together and as we do it more regularly, with increasing awe).
But the journey has to start somewhere. And so it would be worth while to think about where you’ve encountered God in your life before, where you find yourself closest to God now, and to see how this then leads you back to here where we celebrate God’s presence in our lives together.
Next week, the story continues, God’s manifestation in Jesus becomes much more dramatic, but to get there and to appreciate the need to travel to get to the “drama,” let's focus this week on God’s presence in our lives even if we live “at the edge” of Chicago, or “at the edge” of what seems important, even at the “edges of our lives” and then wait until next week for us to focus on bringing God then into the center.
As they say, this story is "to be continued" ...
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