Homily for the week of January 23, 2011

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Isaiah 8:23..9:3

Psalm 27:1, 4, 13.14

1 Corinthians 1:10.13, 17

Matthew 4:12.23 or 4:12-17

There are few things that feel better than being chosen. First to be picked for kickball at recess, making the honor roll, landing the perfect job, being chosen to marry each other, choosing to give birth to your child. Very often we are dependent on others choosing us. Very often our happiness rests on others’ choices.

Today St. Matthew tells us a little about Jesus choosing his closest associates. He had been praying for a few days. Instead of going to his hometown of Nazareth, a sleepy village of a few hundred families, he goes to Capernaum, a bustling fishing town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum was located on a very busy international trade route called the Way to the Sea that connected Damascus and Syria with Egypt. Jesus knew that he could reach a lot more people here by teaching and healing them. But first of all he needs helpers to do his work. So Jesus starts inviting.

According to the story, Jesus chose fishermen, tax collectors, and other low class citizens to be his disciples. They weren’t particularly important people on the social ladder of the day. They were ordinary people with hopes and dreams, heartaches and suffering. They were very human, full of passions and sins and problems. Throughout the gospels, we are reminded of their humanity as they doubt, betray, and question Jesus. Still, Jesus accepted them and welcomed them into his life and his ministry.

Jesus finally choses 12 because there were 12 states in Israel. But being chosen also meant radical changes in their lives. They leave their occupation. There are also changes in their family relationships as the relationship with Jesus and devotion to his mission becomes their primary focus. James and John leave their father. But Peter makes his family home a hub for the mission, in which his family members play an important role.

How many people were sitting in the crowd the day that Jesus chose his twelve apostles? As the apostles were named, chosen, asked to join Jesus on his journey, surely there were others in the crowd who desired to join them, anxious to leave behind their old lives and take up a new adventure. But Jesus did not pick them.

Two thousand years later, Jesus extends that same invitation to each of us. Today’s Bible reading is a reminder that we don’t need to be perfect to be a follower of Jesus. We too are deeply human, full of passions and sins and problems. We should embrace the imperfections and the failures. We should be honest and bring our entire self to the table and offer our lives to God, however God wants to work through us.

One other thought: The disciples chose to drop everything and follow Jesus. Imagine that! A new guy comes to town preaching a new Gospel and asks you to join him and spread his message. What an incredible amount of faith that must have taken! I think we can all learn from that as well. Life is full of options and choosing the safe one isn’t always beneficial in the long run. If you take the time to listen, there may be a little voice leading you into the unknown. Though leaving your comfort zone seems daunting, choosing that road less travelled will always be an opportunity for growth.

We believe that every person has some unique call which God cries out to their heart. Sometimes it is not the call we want, and disappointment can blind us to the true opportunities which God places before us. It says in the gospel that Jesus “summoned those whom he wanted.” He then gave them the power to preach.

How often when you are not chosen do you give in to feelings of self-rejection or its reverse temptation: pride? Do not forget that God has given you a unique call for your life. Sometimes we are chosen and asked to leave behind everything we have; at other times we are asked to go back home to our friends and family. Even in rejection we can find a call.

There is an old saying which states: “When God closes a door, He opens a window.” Whether in the quiet of prayer or the gentle prodding of a beloved friend or even in rejection, in some way God is trying to point us in the right direction.

Our first reading today is by Isaiah. Isaiah tells us that THE PEOPLE WHO WALKED IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT; UPON THOSE WHO DWELT IN THE LAND OF GLOOM A LIGHT HAS SHONE. I imagine most of us can think of somebody, some person who has come through our life at some point and to this very day, has left his or her mark on us. Perhaps it was a teacher or a friend or just someone who seemed to understand us better than most others. It could be a person who took time to listen to us when we needed it, and we were not judged by that person.

I think it would also be true to say that there are certain experiences that happen in our lives that change us for ever. If we had not been in this place at this particular moment in our life, met this person, accepted this job, decided to go to this particular school, would we be where we are today? There are just so many arbitrary things that happen to us in life, that we cannot predict what we will turn out to be, or what will happen to us. In one way or the other we are all controlled by the unknown.

While most of us were baptized as babies, we have had numerous conversions of faith in our life. We are converted by the people that we spoke with, play basketball with, and ate with. Whether it is the volunteers that provide food and shelter for helpless and hopeless immigrants, or discusses the meaning of happiness in her marriage, our blindness is cured by the people that we meet. It is apparent through the readings today that we, as followers of Jesus, are called to a life of hope through the example in our faith in Jesus.