1) The first call: "Repent."
In today's passage the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew tells us that Jesus left Nazareth, where in hiding he had lived a normal daily life, so that none of his fellow villagers[1] had seen in him someone exceptional, and went to Capernaum to bring the light of God. He went to a place where there was a great mixture of Jews and other peoples, and for this reason was called by the Jews "Galilee of the Gentiles," or "province of the pagans."
The human logic would have expected that the messianic proclamation would have started from the heart of Judaism that is from Jerusalem[2], and instead it starts from a peripheral region, Galilee, generally despised and considered tainted by paganism. But just what it is considered a surprise, for St. Matthew is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy and the telltale sign of Jesus, the universal Messiah that grinds all forms of particularism.
Jesus began from this "apparent" suburb[3] to illuminate both the Holy City and the world, and his announcement is summarized by St. Matthew in a concise formula “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17). These first words of Jesus are simple and few. St. Mark writes: " This is the time of fulfilment, the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mk 1:15). The words recorded in the Gospel of today are even more spare ("Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"), and perhaps because of their own sobriety, not clear to us modern men and women. To understand these words and to understand well the difference between John's message and the message of Jesus, I propose an explanation in our language in trying to bring out their meaning, eternally alive.
"The time is fulfilled." The time awaited, prophesied and foretold has come to fullness. The time of living without knowing the beauty of the life with Christ has come to completion. The time of deceptions has come to an end. It is time to open our eyes to God and contemplate His face which then becomes, in a measure, ours.
"The Kingdom is at hand." John the Baptist said that a king would soon come to establish a new kingdom: the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus gives the good news that the King has come and that the doors of the Kingdom are open. The Kingdom is not the old-fashioned imagination of a poor Jew of twenty centuries ago, an ancient thing, a dead memory, a shattered dream. The Kingdom of heaven is within us. It starts now: it is also our work, for our happiness in this life, on this earth. It also depends on our will, on our answering yes or no to the vocation of Christ, who calls us to be holy that is to look at heaven, to wish for heaven and hope to live forever in heaven. The Kingdom of God is peace and joy[4].
"Repent" says Jesus. “Repent,” even this "old” word has been distorted from its true meaning. The word of the Gospel in Greek “Metanoeite” cannot be translated into Latin as “poenitemini” or in English as “do penance." Metanoia is properly a change of the way of thinking, a change of mind and the transformation of the soul. Metamorphosis is a change in the form; metanoia is a change of spirit, a change of mentality. Rightly the translation is "conversion" which is the renewal of the inner man. The idea of "repentance” and “penance " are applications and illustrations of the invitation of Jesus to turn to Him, to move toward the light.
The Messiah invites us to convert to the light of truth and to the bliss of love.
In loving Him we’ll know Him better, and knowing Him better we will love Him even more. We love only what we know well, love makes transparent those we love. The first conversion is to believe in the Word of Love. “Faith, tied as it is to conversion, is the opposite of idolatry; it breaks with idols to turn to the living God in a personal encounter. Believing means entrusting oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and which shows its power by its ability to make straight the crooked lines of our history. Faith consists in the willing- ness to let ourselves be constantly transformed and renewed by God’s call.“ (Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei, #13)
2) A call in the call
The passage of the Encyclical of Pope Francis led us to comment on the second part of today's Gospel, which speaks of the calling of the first disciples. Jesus makes the proposal to follow Him on the shore of Lake Capernaum, where He was preaching and where men were busy with their work.
There is no exceptional setting for the calling of the first disciples: a port on the shore of a lake, a place of work for the fishermen.
Let’s try to bring out the essential features of this tale of life.
Jesus is the protagonist. He is the central character. His is the initiative (“He saw two brothers “- Peter and Andrew - “and said unto them ‘Follow me.’ He saw two other brothers “- James and John of Zebedee – “and called them ").
It is not the man who proclaims himself a disciple, but it is Jesus that converts the man and calls him to be his disciple choosing him with love. The disciple then is not called in the first place to learn a doctrine but to live with a Presence that is the emotional center of his life of “called one”. In the first place there is the attachment to the person of Jesus
This membership requires a profound detachment. James and John, Peter and Andrew leave their nets and the boat and their father. In other words they live the work and the family. The work ensures security and social esteem, the father represents the roots. This is a radical departure.
This separation makes it possible to respond to the call of Jesus by following Him fully and freely. The two verbs "leave" and "follow" indicate a shift of the center of the life of the person called. The call of Jesus is not in view of a social arrangement, does not located in one state, but sets off on a mission.
Finally, we see that the characteristics of the disciple are at least two: the communion with Christ ("follow me ") and a move towards humanity ("I will make you fishers of men"). The second one stems from the first. Jesus does not put his disciples in a separate, closed space. He sends them along the roads of the world. In this respect also Pope Francis speaking of Saint Peter Favre, a French Jesuit, invites us to imitate this “Companion of Jesus" letting “Christ occupy the center of the heart[5]."
Even the Consecrated Virgins live this "centrality" of Christ, following him in full abandonment and loving trust and imitating the first 4 apostles chosen by Jesus. It is not a coincidence that they were fishermen. The fisherman, who lives most of his days in the pure solitude of the water, is the person who knows how to wait. It is the patient person who is in no hurry, drops his net and relies on God .The water throws tantrums, the lake has its own eccentricities and the days are never alike. Starting to go off in search of fish, the fisherman does not know if he will return with boat full or without even a fish to put on the fire for his meal. He puts himself in the hands of the Lord who sends the abundance and famine. He consoles himself for the bad day thinking about the good one to come.
With talent and feminine sensibility capable of supreme dedication, the Consecrated Virgins live the same call of the apostles-fishermen. They live the same path of holiness of the one who chooses to follow Christ with dilated heart and the same humility of the Holy Family of Nazareth (such as the Ambrosian liturgy recalls today) of which obviously Jesus was the center and where evidently the home of the one was the affection of the Other.
Mary and Joseph guarded and helped Jesus to grow not only because He would have said words of eternal life, but because in faith they knew that He was the Word of Life forever.
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Roman Rite
Is 8:23b-9:3; Ps 27; 1Cor 1:10-13; Mt 4:12-23
GOSPEL COMMENTARY MT 4:12-23
Love and change
Fr. Robert Wagner
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Not surprisingly, this is the first public message that Jesus preaches in the Gospel of Matthew. In these words we recognize the incredible reality that surrounds the presence of Jesus in our midst, the immensity of His love for us and His desire for our salvation that flows from that love.
That being said, the first part of Christ’s proclamation — “Repent” — may be a stumbling block for us. Too often, when we are told to change our ways, we respond with negativity, even in cases when we know the change is well-advised. A demand for conversion or repentance requires us to admit that there are faults and sins that keep us from being the person God created us to be. Such self-examination is difficult, so in our pride, our defenses go up when someone suggests we are less than perfect, even when that someone is Jesus. And so we bristle at the divine command to repent, and in the confusion and self-love that follow we may even begin to doubt the sincerity of God’s love for us. Jesus loves us unconditionally, so why would He command us to change? Shouldn’t His great love for us allow Him to accept us as we are?
Of course, we know the answer to this. Jesus does love us, even in our sinfulness. But He does not want us to remain in our sin, so in His love for us, He tells us to change. This is not a unique situation: a call for change driven by love (not opposed to it). We see it when mothers and fathers shape the virtue of their children by telling them what they are doing right and wrong. Or when husbands and wives try to lovingly correct each other in order to strengthen their marriage when they find that their spouse’s actions are causing harm. In severe cases, we know that loved ones confront friends and family who are struggling with a dangerous way of life so that he or she may live life more freely and fruitfully.
Love does not exclude someone from correcting another’s fault. In fact, if that fault keeps a loved one from happiness, love requires that the damaging fault be addressed.
Therefore, at the very start of His ministry, Jesus tells His followers to repent and gives a reason for it: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This announcement takes on its richest, fullest possible meaning when proclaimed by Jesus because it is His kingdom that has arrived, the kingdom of God. He is the King who comes to conquer sin and death, to save each and every one of us, and to bring peace throughout His kingdom. And thus at the beginning of His ministry, when Jesus reveals that His glorious kingdom “is at hand,” we first encounter this eternal promise of triumph, peace and joy.
Our Gospel this Sunday translates the command “Repent” from the Greek word “metanoein,” which could also be translated as, “Change your mind” When we realize the startling reality that confronts us — the kingdom of God is among us — the perspective cannot help but change our hearts and minds. When we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that in many ways we do not live as members of the kingdom of heaven but instead are focused on the passing things of this world. In His love, Jesus tells us to look at the glorious gift He is offering us, and confronted with its beauty identify what it is that keeps us from fully participating in the triumph of the heavenly King. Jesus wants us to share the fullness of the kingdom He brings. He longs for us to change that we may have life to the fullest.
With Christ’s coming, the people in darkness have seen a great light. Let us pray for the humility to heed Our Savior’s call to change without taking offense, to see our actions in the light of His truth and love, and cast off the sinfulness that impedes our full participation in His everlasting kingdom, today and for all eternity.
Fr. Wagner is Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde’s secretary.