I am part of a team who teach a “Catholic Class” at a local residential program for mentally challenged adults, Stewart Home School. Since the beginning of Advent, we have been studying the infancy narratives of Jesus. This week we will talk about the fifth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple.
It is significant that Jesus was 12 years old in this story. At the age of 12, Jesus “became a servant of the Law.” He was obligated to follow it. It was his Bar Mitzvah. It’s a bit of a stretch for any parent to know that Jesus was without sin, yet he disappeared from his parents for four days and did not seem to realize how much distress that would cause them. Yet that is how the story is written—surely from Luke’s conversations with Mary.
My own sense of it is that as Jesus prepared for his Bar Mitzvah, he had questions—perhaps questions that neither his parents nor the local rabbis could answer. Jesus wanted to keep the Law. To keep it, he needed his questions answered so he could fully understand.
Today is Word of God Sunday. It is a day to focus on Scripture. How important is it to us?
Isaiah 8:23-9:3
We continue to hop, skip, and jump around in Isaiah. The reading this week is from First Isaiah. If you went to midnight mass on Christmas, you heard this same reading proclaimed. That tells you what it is about: it is about the Messiah. Today’s Gospel is about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. It is about God coming to reveal to the people the Light of God’s Truth and God’s Love. The original audience for this prophecy was the Jews in Galilee who were being forced to go to Babylon in 732 BCE, after the campaign of Tiglath-pileser III. This was more than 100 years before the fall and deportation of Jerusalem. This prophecy was meant to give comfort and hope. It foretells a time to come when this part of the Holy Land, experiencing shame and defeat in the beginning years of defeat for the Hebrew people, will be the first to see the Light of God’s return and salvation of His people.
You may notice some of the same lines are in Matthew’s Gospel today. Matthew is writing to Jewish converts. He is tying the story of Jesus to the story of a very dark time in their history. He is making the point: THIS JESUS IS THE MESSIAH, the one you have hoped for.
Matthew 4:12-23 or Matthew 4:12-17
In Chapter 3 of Matthew, Jesus listens to John the Baptist and is baptized. Chapter 4 begins with Jesus’ temptations in the desert following his baptism. Then comes today’s passage. Jesus is beginning his work.
Some background things to note:
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus begins his ministry by moving to the seaside town of Capernaum. Capernaum was in the territory of Zebulon and Naphtali—and so, Jesus begins his ministry fulfilling the predictions of Isaiah 8.
Jesus begins his ministry calling for metanoia. Metanoia means a RADICAL, profound life change that begins with turning away from sin and turning toward God. It is a change of heart, mind, and practice. This was the same message as John the Baptist.
Matthew uses the term “Kingdom of Heaven,” while other evangelists use the term “Kingdom of God.” However, they mean the same thing. Matthew is NOT having Jesus begin by talking about Eternal Life in heaven. He is talking about living a life WITH GOD here and now. He is saying, “Change you ways from NOT following Jewish Law to FOLLOWING it. That will put you individually in God’s chosen community.” That is essentially the same message as John the Baptist.
But then, Jesus makes a change. He isn’t telling people to get ready for the Messiah. He says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” i.e., is COMING NOW.
If you are reading the full reading, the Gospel goes on to speak of Jesus calling his first disciples. We know from the Gospel of John that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. Peter also was with Andrew at the Jordan when John was preaching and baptizing. He met Jesus then.
Until I put that together, I couldn’t imagine how Jesus could just walk along the shore and people follow him. It seemed magical or something. But it wasn’t magical. These disciples had met Jesus. Andrew said the first day he spent time with Jesus, “We have found the Messiah.”
They were the first disciples called. They followed. It was a free, rational choice.
I Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
The second reading does not fit with the other two readings as easily today as it has in recent weeks. Yet, there is a connection. Paul is starting his letter to the Corinthians by confronting divisions and rivalries.
He is saying that the Light of Christ is about Christ, not his evangelists. And there is a unity to it, just as there was a unity between the prophecy of Isaiah and Jesus. It is the Truth of Scripture, of teaching, that is important. That is what should give the Corinthians hope and lead to metanoia.
Applications
I go back to thoughts of how important Scripture must have been to Jesus—and how important it was to him to follow God’s Law. Sometimes, when Jesus is arguing with the Pharisees about healing on a Sunday, it can be easy for us to think, “Jesus wasn’t picky about the details of the Law. See, I don’t need to be picky either.”
Perhaps Jesus was so interested in listening to and questioning the rabbis in the temple when he was 12 because he wanted a DEEP understanding of the Law. What was the core of it that was important to God? When a person was in a bind between conflicting laws (do I help a poor man lying on the side of the road or not), how should the decision be made? He might not have been picky–but he was precise.
St. Paul is telling the Corinthians to be precise. Both Jesus and St. Paul go to Scripture to know how to be precise, how to see as God sees.
How does God see in January, 2023?
I wonder about that a lot today. There are so many polarities in the Church—within the Catholic Church and within all Christians. We are finishing up the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in the US.
I remember a famous quote from Bishop Fulton Sheen, “Every heresy is at least 95% true.”
Ah, it is the other 5% that divides us.
Where do I need to have a metanoia because there is a piece of my faith that is in that other 5%.
Today is Word of God Sunday. Our church teaches that the Word of God is a unity and is true. It fed Jesus and it feeds us. How we read and interpret Scripture is 101-141 in the Catechism. Nine pages. A nice read for a Sunday afternoon.
Prayer:
Lord, lead me and guide through your Word. Let my studies of Scripture be Your Light. May the Light of Scripture grow in brightness in Your Church as more and more people seriously read and study it in the ways the Church guides us to read and study–with precision.
