ME
NU

OMELIE / Omelie EN

26 gen 2020
26/01/2020 – 3rd Sunday in O. T. - Year A 

26/01/2020 – 3rd Sunday in O. T. - Year A 

Reading 1 IS 8,23b - 9,2 * Psalm 26 * Reading 2 1COR 1,10-13.17 * Gospel MT 4,12-23

 

During every celebration of ours, happens what the evangelist Matthew says when he begins telling about Jesus' appearance on the public scene:  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”. We lift our eyes from the darkness which our sin envelopes us in, because to ask for and to receive forgiveness open new horizons in front of us.

The evangelist is taking these words from the prophet Isaiah: they are the words we have heard in the first reading, in which he was reassuring us also about the fact that humiliations coming from the Lord will be rewarded with huge joy: the villages in Galilee have suffered great blows, but exactly these will be the witness of the new light coming from the Messiah, from the Saviour of all men! The words of the prophet give us consolation right when we are suffering too, while we carry our cross in obedience to God in our daily tasks and in the faithfulness to the mission we received in the family, in the Church and in society.

Today Jesus, since He is present in the world, by inviting us to convert, is making us aware that His presence does not leave us as it has found us. To meet Jesus means letting us being questioned by Him, and He is calling us to follow unfamiliar paths, to attend new tasks, to be a sign and a gift also for the others. The calling of the two brothers Simon and Andrew is a particular calling, as it is James' and his brother John's. Jesus is about to lay the foundations of His new construction, of His people. Fraternity will need to be lived in it. Everyone in His kingdom will need to be brethren: the first to be called already know the fraternal life and in it they will need to welcome all the others, who will be called by Jesus: they will welcome them in the warmth and trustfulness that are typical of fraternal living.

Their calling is also a sign, an example of how our meeting the Lord will happen: He, meeting a person, does not only greet them, but He invites them to give themselves to others. This is a beautiful thing: Jesus knows that fullness of life is achieved when we make a gift of it, showing in this way our similarity to God the Father, it means to abandon our habit of thinking always of ourselves, of satisfying our own desires, of paying attention to the needs we think are important! Peter, Andrew, James and John abandon their job, the boat and the nets, and they even leave their father behind: these things and people represent their past, their habits, the traditions, their affections and human securities. Who abandon them in order to follow Jesus becomes a new person, able to welcome the richness of a new life.

To leave behind our past with its influences is necessary, otherwise being with Jesus does not bring any news, becomes an illusion and, afterwards, disappointment. Who learns to leave something behind for the love of Jesus will be able to take those steps which today Saint Paul advises taking. In his Christian communities there were divisions and quarrels because someone was following the Lord without giving up anything of their past, without having forgotten of himself and, above all, without having given up the desire to be important and valued by men.

The life of the Church becomes a scandal for the people who are approaching faith, if the Christians who live in it do not consider Jesus above everything else, at the cost of saying no to themselves, or, as Jesus say, at the cost of  having to “deny themselves”, to let go of what you like, of what you feel more inclined towards. The cross, with its suffering, cannot be missing in the life of the true believer! It is the normal atmosphere of every authentic conversation, a sign of authenticity of every follower of Jesus Christ!

We will keep in our heart, from now on, the desire to take meaningful steps in order to follow the Lord, who rests His eyes on each one of us too! In this way we make concrete and meaningful the prayer for the unity of all the Confessions, the prayer we offered God in the past few days.