Happy Biblemas, everyone!
On September 30, 2019, the Feast of St. Jerome, Pope Francis designated the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time as the “Sunday of the Word of God,” to be observed in parishes throughout the world with rituals or activities that highlight the centrality of God’s Word in the lives of Christian faithful. So I like to call this Holy Day, “Biblemas.”
The reason the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time was chosen for the Sunday of the Word of God is that this Sunday, in the new Lectionary, we begin the semi-continuous reading of the Gospel for that liturgical year. Yes, we have been reading from Matthew already in Year A, but starting this Sunday, we will begin to read the Gospel in order, starting from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (Matthew 4:12).
The Lectionary readings for today’s Mass, appropriately, are particularly rich.
The first reading for today’s mass comes from Isaiah 8-9:
First the Lord degraded the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali;
but in the end he has glorified the seaward road,
the land west of the Jordan,
the District of the Gentiles.
Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness:
for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.
Obviously this reading from Isaiah is paired with today’s Gospel because Matthew quotes some of this passage and sees it’s fulfillment in our Lord’s revelation of himself in the region of Galilee.
Nonetheless, commentators and homilists often miss the relationship between the two passages.
In his own day, Isaiah was preaching to the northern tribes of Israel (Zebulun and Naphtali), whose territory had been decimated by the Assyrians, with large portions of the population deported around 722 BC. The point of Isaiah’s oracle was one of hope: this same portion of ancestral Israel, so devasted and bleak in his own day, would be the first to witness the arrival of the Messianic age. St. Matthew sees the fulfillment of this passage in our Lord’s choice to begin his ministry in these northern territories—a choice that otherwise might seem counter-intuitive, since the region of Galilee was not a particularly historic or significant one in Israel’s sacred history.
Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
R. (1a) The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The second reading for today’s Mass is 1 Cor 1:10-17, which was not chosen to fit the theme of the Gospel, but rather because we are reading through 1 Corinthians at the beginning of Ordinary Time. (Curiously, Ordinary Time always begins with 1 Corinthians and then breaks off around Week 8. Thus, it takes the full three-year cycle to “read through” the book. See here: http://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Overview-Epistles.htm).
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters,
by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.
I mean that each of you is saying,
“I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,”
or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel,
and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,
so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.
Providentially, however, the reading provides a connection with the theme of the Gospel for today’s Mass. St. Paul says, “Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel …” And so we are reminded that the preaching ministry of Christ is continued by that of his Apostles, and also their successors, and so on down through history, to our own day. Even for us lay people, who may not preach in the formal sense of those who share in the charisms of Holy Orders, do have a responsiblity to “preach” by our example and also by our explicit testimony (when given the opportunity) that the Kingdom of God is present now, because Jesus Christ has come.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus “began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:12-22:
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.
Or
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The concept of the “Kingdom of Heaven” needs to be associated with the Davidic Kingship of Jesus so strongly emphasized by Matthew in the opening chapters of his Gospel (1:20; 2:2; 2:5-6), and present also in Isaiah 9. If we were to read on in Isaiah 9, for example, beyond the portion quoted by Matthew in Matt 3: 15-16, we would find Isaiah predicting the coming of a Davidic King (Isa 9:7) who is also somehow divine (Isa 9:6). The Kingdom of Heaven proclaimed by Jesus is also the Kingdom of David, just as Jesus is fully God and fully Man. And so the Kingdom of Heaven has an earthly manifestation that resembles the Davidic Kingdom it “restores and transforms” (credit to Dr. Scott Hahn for this hendiadys). Thus we see Jesus, in the subsequent verses of Matt 3 (vv. 18-22), beginning to choose his royal officers, ultimately twelve of them, just as there were twelve officers over the Kingdom of David during its golden age (see 1 Kings 4:7-19).
The Kingdom of Heaven remains open to us today, now, if we will repent (turn away from our sins) and receive it. The reminder of the great sin of our generation, abortion, by the March for Life this past Friday may help urge us toward repentance and reparation.