Mt. 4, 12-23
Today’s Gospel presents to us the beginning of Jesus’ public life. He could not have a more humble and simple beginning.
Nothing to do with the huge ceremonies that we like to do now-a-day to mark the beginning of great events. Let’s think about inaugural ceremonies, for example, the Olympic Games, where the country hosting the event risks its’ reputation, its’ prestige.
Or let’s remember the inaugural ceremony for the presidency of the United States, thousands of people invited, enduring the cold temperatures of winter in January, out in the open, just to be present at this magnificent event.
Also in the church, we like big events, the huge ceremonies and liturgies with thousands and thousands of people in the audience, an overflowing church
Jesus withdrew to Galilee and from there He goes from town to town, preaching the simplest message we can imagine, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”. John has been arrested and Jesus goes to Galilee.
Galilee was the most distant part of the country and the most remote from Jerusalem. Galilee was treated with disdain and its’ inhabitants were considered as most rude and rough. Capernaum was a city of Galilee.
Under these contexts, Jesus begins to preach and to proclaim that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: “the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light” (Matthew 4: 14-16).
The life of every human being has numerous moments of darkness. Even the great mystics have gone thru dark nights, even though purified darkness, they always carry a heavy load of pain.
Whoever accepts Jesus is able to see the profound clarity in his life and thru all his existence, even if this acceptance of Jesus entails great effort and sacrifice.
Curiously we usually say, the morning is clear, we have our business in order, and our intentions are clear, but we probably have not stop to examine the profound clarity of our lives.
To have clarity is to distinguish what is happening to us and why it happens, be able to distinguish who we are; who we belong to, and know that we are not gods, that God is God.
The be in darkness, is to deceive oneself, not wanting to see the reality of ones’ life, the presence of God in it, that is why the shadows are “shadows of death”, because they do not allow me to be more human, it will not allow me to grow as a human, spiritually or emotionally.
One of the greatest tragedies of the human life is to be in darkness and not be able to find the path to Jesus that proclaims on the next line, the necessity we have to convert, to change ourselves so the light will come to our lives. For that, Jesus proposes our conversion to God.
To convert is to change our mentality, to obtain the criterion of God. But not everyone is willing to make that change. Most of the time because we are scared or because we feel comfortable as we are. People prefer to keep on hurting than to go after their hopes. They prefer their suffering rather than confront, face up to themselves.
The Lord does not confront us with the others, not even with our enemies. He does something which is more painful and difficult, He confront us to ourselves and our interior world.
When Jesus began His preaching, He also began to gather together disciples, so they will be listeners before they became preachers. While in the middle of this preaching, He finds the first apostles: Peter, James, John and Andrew who were fishermen.
They practice a very humble and insignificant task in a town of bad reputation, they are the ones He recognizes and invites to live the greatest adventure of their lives, to be Apostles.
Probably at that time they did not understand and did not agree with His call, but the truth is that when Jesus passes and enters our lives, we are no longer the same, we become different individuals, our mentality and habits change, because His look has the power to transform, to change the interior of the individual.
The disciples followed Him because they trusted His word, even before they witnessed His miracles.
The Christian life is not based on the witnessing of miracles, but in trusting completely in the One, that can make them happen.
The Gospel ends with the healing of illnesses and maladies of the town, it is amazing to see that the preaching of Jesus is always united, together to recovery, to getting well, to the healing of all illnesses of the people who are close to Him, the people who listen to His word, this is a very clear signal that the healing Jesus realizes on the people is not only physical but spiritual as well.
We are all call to an integral healing of ourselves, of our lives. We are all call to conversion, which is the greatest and richest healing a human being can receive.
AMEN
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