Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A: January 27th, 2008

Scripture Readings
First Isaiah 8:23b -9:3
Second 1 Corinthians 1:10 -13, 17.
Gospel Matthew 4:12 - 23 or 4: 2 - 17.

Prepared by: Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes, OP

1. Subject Matter
• The liturgy today focuses on the proclamation of the advent of the Kingdom of Heaven in
Jesus Christ. It also includes the calling of the first apostles, but this is a theme subsidiary to
the other readings, as evidenced by the shape of the shorter form of the Gospel, which drops
this section.
• The close of John's preaching ministry, marks the beginning of Jesus' own. Jesus calls for
"repentance," not merely a turning from sin, but a turning as well forward towards God,
whose reign will be discovered in personal union with Jesus, the Son of God who uniquely
reveals the Father.
• In preaching the coming all the reign of God, Jesus opens to Israel and to all the world and
new and personal way of union with the Creator, which is manifested first of all in Him, in the
personal, undying, and eternal union of the Son and the Father.
• In a personal commitment to Jesus, we receive a new way of seeing the world, the shape or
religion, and the meaning of personal faith; a new "nous” (mental framework), which begins
the manifestation of the reign of God in the soul who comes to the Emmanuel who himself
perfectly incarnates that reign.

2. Exegetical Notes
• Isaiah 8:23b -9:3: The Prophet announces the coming advent of the Messianic King as
"great light", possibly indirectly referring to the prophecy of the Moabite prophet Balaam in
Numbers 24: "I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near: a star shall rise from
Jacob and a staff shall rise from Israel." The lands which felt first the wrath of God for the
sins of their inhabitants, that is “Zebulun and Naphtali,” ( “Galilee of the Gentiles” in the time
of Jesus) whose original Jewish inhabitants were exiled by the Assyrian Tiglath-pilesar III in
743 B.C. , are now to receive, by the mercy of God, the first preaching of the new Gospel of
peace by the Messiah himself.
• 1 Corinthians 1:10 -13, 17: in this passage, St. Paul points out the absurdity of divisions
within the Corinthian church, whose factions claim as leaders. Persons who have in fact
never preached in their community (e.g., Peter, and Apollos). Paul points out that his own
work in the community was not baptism, but the preaching of the Gospel in power. In
chapter 18, he points out that this gospel is experienced by those who are being saved by it
is not a matter of human eloquence, intellectual factionalism, or any earthly dynamism, but
the power of God directly at work in them.
• Matthew 4:12 – 23: Matthew's Gospel , with Mark and Luke, places the beginning of the
preaching mission of Jesus directly after his baptism and temptation in the desert. Matthew
notes that this mission began upon the arrest of John the Baptist, upon which Jesus withdrew
to Galilee to begin his mission in the same lands which at first felt the wrath of God, on
account of the Israelites' sins. The core of Jesus' preaching is summarized: “Repent (Gk.:
“Metanoeite”) , for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
• The call to change one's pattern of mind (nous), the basic logic of one's life and relationship
to God and the world, reflects the Hebrew concept of repentance (Heb.:shub” (“turning
around “ (as on a road)), but in a different manner. Instead of turning into the "path of the
commandments, "or the "ways of the Lord", Jesus will make the object of the penitent’s
turning his own person. In this way, repentance is fixed as a path, not merely as a way out of
sin for the sinner, but becomes a permanent progression into the mystery of God's love and
the life of the Trinity. Thus love triumphs over law, and justification is based on God's
righteousness and that of his Son, and not upon any human attempt to present oneself as
righteous according to an external code of holiness or morals.
• “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”; this phrase, Jesus gives the reason for and object of
repentance. Mark's Gospel refers to the "Kingdom of God." The word "heaven" Matthew
uses as a circumlocution for the divine name, in accordance with conventional Jewish
sensibilities in this most Jewish of the Gospels. The Word "Kingdom" does not refer to a
physical realm or sphere of power, but is an action word implying the present activity of God
acting and reigning. The underlying Hebrew term malkuth signifies a present action of
lordship, focusing on the one who rules rather fun on that which is ruled: “ God-reigning”. As
Matthew's Gospel unfolds, “God-reigning” will be revealed, precisely in the relationship of
Jesus, the eternal Son with the eternal Father, and “entering the kingdom” will be identified,
by entering into relationship with the Son. This is accomplished in penitence (metanoia) and
faith. This Kingdom of Heaven breaks into history through the person of Jesus. Matthew's
Gospel will recognize that these beginnings of change seem at first insignificant and obscure
(e.g., the parables of the mustard seed, of the leaven mixed with dough); nevertheless, this
relationship with Christ is something worth trading all other good earthly goods and realities
for ( as the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field.)
• Verses 18 to 23 deal with the call of the first disciples. Matthew portrays them as being
called away in the midst of their daily work. From John's Gospel, it seems that Andrew and
John were already disciples of John the Baptist, and in turn brought James and Peter to meet
the Lord. Matthews presentation of this material nevertheless makes a close connection with
the preceding section: the vocation of the first apostles is seen as a result of a direct and
formal call by the Lord (a thing not inconsistent in itself with John's Gospel) conjoined with
the promise that they shall be "fishers of men" (a reference to the apostolic ministry.) What
Matthew makes clear is that, confronted with call by this Jesus, whom they did not yet know,
they nevertheless left the life they had behind them to follow him, to join themselves with his
 life. This remains the necessary paradigm for accepting Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven
within him. Like the renunciations made by Abraham (Genesis 12) when he first began to
follow God, the apostles must leave their family and their former way of life to go into the new
and unknown country of the Kingdom of Jesus, which they, like Abraham, have not yet seen,
but nevertheless take on faith by reason of their friendship with and trust in the One who
called them.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• CCC 878: Finally, it belongs to the sacramental character of ecclesial ministry that it have a
personal character. Although Christ's ministers acting communion with one another, they
also always act in a personal way. Each one is called personally: "You, follow me" in order to
be a personal witness within the common mission, to bear personal responsibility before him
who gives the mission, acting "in his person" and for other persons: "I baptize you in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…"; "I absolve you…."
• CCC 1720: The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the Beatitude to
which God calls man:
- the coming of the Kingdom of God;
- the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God";
- entering into the joy of the Lord;
- entering into God's rest:
There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise.
Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other and do we have, if not to
reach the kingdom which has no end? (Irenaeus of Lyons, Adv. haeres. 4,20,5)
• CCC 1989: The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification
in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Moved by grace, then turns toward God and away from sin,
thus excepting forgiveness unrighteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the
remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man." (Council of
Trent [1547]:DS 1529)
• Articles 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 of the CCC go on to describe the other features of
justification, respectively, it is detachment from sin, acceptance of God's righteousness,
merited for us by the passion of Christ, establishes cooperation between grace and freedom,
and is the most excellent work of God's love made manifest in Jesus Christ and granted by
the Holy Spirit.

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities

• St. John Chrysostom (Gospel of Matthew, Homily 14.1.): Why did he withdraw? He was
serving as a pattern for us instructing us not to seek out temptation but to withdraw ourselves
from its sphere of influence. It is not a matter of reproach that one does not intentionally put
oneself in danger. It one must stand nobly when one inadvertently falls into danger. So to
 teach us this and to suit the ire of the Jewish leaders, he withdrew took apart on and in doing
so he fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah.
• Origin, Fragment 74: The kingdom of heaven is not in a place but a disposition. For it is
"within " us. John preaches the calming of that kingdom of heaven, which Christ the King will
deliver up "to God, even the Father."
• Cromatius, Tractate on Matthew 15.3: the voice of the Lord urging the people to
repentance -- the Holy Spirit made known to the people that they may take heed, saying.
"Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your heart is in the rebellion, as in the day of
testing in the wilderness.” In the same Psalm above, he made clear that he was urging the
sinful people to repentance and showed the state of a repentant soul, saying, "Come, let us
fall down before him and lament before the Lord who had made us, for he is our God." …
Rightly, then does the Lord urged the people to repentance when he says, "Repent, for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," so that through this confession of sins they may be made
worthy to approach the Kingdom of Heaven. For no one can receive the grace of the
heavenly God, unless one has been cleansed of every stain of sin by the confession of
repentance, through the gift of the saving Baptism of our Lord and Savior.
• Cromatius, Tractate on Matthew 16.2 (PG 57: 218 -- 19): Here they prove that they were
true sons of Abraham, because by a similar pattern they followed the Savior on hearing
God's voice. … It was the very same thing he had promised through Jeremiah the prophet:
"Behold, I am sending for many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and
afterward I will send for many hunters and they shall hunt them." So we see that the
apostles are called not only fishermen but also hunters: fishermen, for in the nets of the
Gospel preaching they catch all believers like fish in the world; hunters for they catch for
salvation by heavenly hunting those people who are roving this world as though in the woods
of error and who are living like wild animals."
• St. John Chrysostom (Gospel of Matthew, Homily 14.1.): But note both their faith and
their obedience. For though they were in the midst of their work (and you know how time-
consuming a chore fishing is), when they heard his command day did not delay or
procrastinate. They did not say, "Let us return home, and talk things over with our family."
Instead, "they left everything behind and followed," even as Elisha did when he followed
Elijah. For Christ seeks this kind of obedience from us, such that we delay, not even for a
moment, though something absolutely most necessary should vehemently press in on us.
• Incomplete Work on Matthew, Homily 7 (PG 56:676): Notice that Peter and Andrew are
said to have left behind their nets, whereas James and John their father and a vessel. There
are generally three things each person who comes to Christ should leave behind: acts of the
flesh, material goods, parents in the flesh. … So they left behind their vessel, that they might
become helmsman of the Church’s vessel; they left behind their nets, that they might no
longer bring fish to the earthly city, but people to the heavenly city; and they left behind a
father, that they might become the parents of all spiritual beings.

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

• St. John of Vercelli, before undergoing a radical conversion to Christ, had devoted himself to
the study of canon law at the University of Paris. On hearing that some friends of his had
entered the Dominican Order, he himself was struck to the heart, and losing no time,
 immediately rose from his books, and began running to the Dominicans’ lodgings to present
himself as a novice. A friend, seeing him dashing madly through the streets, asked him
where he was going. "I'm going to God", he responded, " I'm going to God!” Arriving at the
house where Jordan of Saxony and other brethren were staying, he threw off his silk cloak
prostrated himself. "as if drunk"; all he could say was, "I belong to God." Master Jordan
responded, "Since you belong to God, in his name we make you over to him." And with that
he got up and clothed him.
• St. Thomas Aquinas famously was confronted by the Lord in a vision he had toward the end
of his life. "Thomas, you have written well with me. What do you desire?” said Christ. “Nihil
nisi te, Domine, nihil nisi te,” responded the Common Doctor of the Catholic Church.
“Nothing but you, Lord, nothing but you.”
• Saint Agnes, a virgin-martyr at the age of 12, on her way to the place of her beheading, was
besieged with offers of marriage by influential Romans moved by the gravity and courage
with which she faced death for the sake of Jesus, to whom she had given herself as a
spiritual spouse. St. Ambrose reports let she said, “To hope that any other will please me
does wrong to my Spouse. I will be his who first chose me for himself. Executioner, why do
you delay? If eyes that I do not want can desire this body, then let it perish.”

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI

• "In an apocryphal saying of Jesus that has been transmitted by Origen, he says: "Whoever
comes close to me come close to the fire." Whoever comes close to them, accordingly, must
prepare to be burned … it burns, yet. A fire, but one that makes things bright and cure and
three and grand. Being a Christian, then, is daring to trust oneself to this burning fire …
Christ is the one who brings peace. For this message is in fact they're precisely in order to
conflict with our behavior, to tear man out of his life of lies and to bring clarity and truth." (God
and the World, pp.222,223).
• "Faith is not just a system of knowledge, things we are told; at the heart of it is a meeting with
Jesus. His meeting with Jesus, among all those other meetings we have need of, is a truly
decisive one. I'll are other meetings leave the ultimate goal unclear, where we are coming
from, where we are going. At our meeting with him, the fundamental light dawns, at which I
can understand God, man, the world, mission, and meaning -- and by which all the other
meetings fall into place." (God and the World, p. 251.)
• “Someone is waiting for me, someone wants me and needs me. God is there first and loves
me. And that is the trustworthy ground on which my life is standing and on which I myself
can construct it .”
• "When we talk of the living God, it means: this got chosen itself to us; it looks out from
eternity into time and put himself in to relationship with us. We cannot define him in whatever
way we like. He has "defined" himself and net stands now before us as our Lord, over us
and in our midst. This self revelation of God, but it virtue of which he is not our conception.
But our Lord, rightfully stands therefore, in the center of our Creed.. that is why the heart of
all our creeds is our Yes Jesus to Christ. "By the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the
Virgin Mary." We genuflect at this clause, because at this point the heavens, the veil behind
 which God is secluded, are swept away, and the mystery touches us directly. (God Is Near
Us, pp. 11-12.)
• "The "Kingdom of God" is a theme that runs through the whole of Jesus' preaching. … Jesus
always speaks as the Son, … the relationship between Father and Son is always present as
the background of his message. In this sense, God is always at the center of the discussion,
yet precisely because Jesus himself is God -- the Son -- his entire preaching is a message
about the mystery of his person, it is Christology, that is discourse concerning God's
presence in his own action and being. And we will see that this is the point that demands a
decision from us, and consequently this is the point that leads to the Cross and Resurrection.
(Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 62 to 63.)

7. Other Considerations
• Repentance (metanoia) is a double turning, both away from sin and towards God. For the
sinner who has already come into the justification of Jesus Christ by faith, the turning from
sin can also be manifested by continued turning from the “path of the sin, thus including
turning away from sins which the patent has not actually yet committed. Even our Blessed
Lady, in her following of Christ, continues to turn away from sin, though by the particular
graces given to her, she has never committed even a venial sin. Nevertheless, by continually
turning towards God, she manifests the virtue of repentance. The virtue of repentance,
therefore, marks all and only those members of the body of Christ who are on the road to
salvation and in a state of sanctifying grace.
• At the heart of today's Gospel is a truth that Christians seemed to have forgotten: that God is
with us, God is among us. We are no longer alone. In the person of Jesus Christ, the life of
God has broken into the life of the world, into our life, in a definitive and permanent way. He
is Emmanuel, God-with-us. Through the person of Jesus Christ, the reign of God has been
shown in history and history, my history, cannot be the same, cannot be told without him in
the story. His love for me does that. Nobiscum Christus! I will never be alone, et nunc et
semper, for Christ and Christ’s Father are with me. And the joy of that should make me
want to dance like David before the Ark.
• The identification of the Kingdom of Heaven, and God's grace with the person of Jesus Christ
is seen in the sacramental life of the Catholic Church; to mention only its beginning and end,
it is the body of Christ, the son of God, that is the instrument by which the waters of the world
have been sanctified to provide the sacrament of Baptism ( the waters that touched his
sacred Body touching now our own bodies) and the Eucharist, which is the lifeblood of the
Church being the sacramental union of the body, blood soul and divinity of Christ with the
bodies and souls those who have accepted the preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Recommended Resources
Benedict XVI, Pope. Jesus of Nazareth. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Auckland:
Doubleday, 2007.
Brown, Raymond E., S.S., Fitzmeyer, Joseph, S.J., and Murphy, Roland E., O. Carm. The
Jerome Biblical Commentary. Two Vols. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1968.

Jurgens, William A. The Faith of the Early Fathers. 3 Vols. Collegeville, Minnesota: The
Liturgical Press, 1979.

Oden, Thomas C., Gen Ed. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament Vol.
Ia, Matthew 1-13. Mario Simonetti, ed.Downer’s Grove, Illinois,: Intervarsity Press, 2001.

Thomas Aquinas, St. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels Collected out of the
Works of the Fathers. Albany, N.Y.: Preserving Christian Publications, Inc., 2001.

Cameron, Peter John, O.P., ed. Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI. Yonkers, NY:
Magnificat/Ignatius Press, 2006.