Fr Jack SJ MD: There Never Was a Golden Age: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Is 8:23-9:3

Ps 27:1,4,13-14

1 Cor 1:10-13,17

Mt 4:12-23

In its introductory essay to the Book of Isaiah, the Jewish Study Bible notes:

"Isaiah is perhaps the best-loved of the prophetic books. It is cited more than any other prophetic text in rabbinic literature." The same is true of the importance of Isaiah for the Catholic Church.

There are questions. Was Isaiah speaking of Christ? Was he speaking of someone or something else entirely? Biblical scholars are all over the place on the answer. Agreement is unlikely.

The same introductory essay explains two important things about Isaiah. The first his name. Semitic names often consisted of sentences that described God; In Hebrew the name Isaiah means "The Lord saves." Secondly, it clarifies why the reading we just heard was in the past tense. Recall:

"The people who have walked in darkness,

have seen a great light; . . .

You have brought them abundant joy . . . ."

The use of the past tense in prophecies is an example of the "the prophetic past tense." The prophetic past predicts future events using the past tense to signify that those events are already as good as done. The prophetic past tense

is rooted in the faith and hope that what we ask of the Lord and what the Lord has promised, is as good as done, even if the present is not as we would want it to be, even if the present bears no resemblance to what God has promised.

Paul was unhappy with the Corinthians when he wrote in response to reports about abuses in the Church at Corinth. He addressed those abuses in the first six chapters of his letter. They included: divisions among the faithful, a case of incest, lawsuits among Christians, and sins against chastity. Apparently, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

"I urge you . . . in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that . . . you agree in what you say . . . that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose." Paul is not suggesting that Christians cannot disagree on earthly affairs: say politics, covid vaccinations, or the merits of the Patriots vs. the Jets.

Paul is referring to the unity of Church teaching and the belief of her members. He is decrying the divisive sectarianism that today is oftentimes driven

by idiosyncratic attempts to fashion a Jesus who fits the speaker’s or group’s desires and personal agenda. The letter is an important corrective to myths of a golden age of agreement and concord even in the earliest days of the Church

and the unrealistic, if not delusional possibility, of agreement and concord in the future.

Jesus’ call “Come follow me” seems simple on the surface. It is terrifying in its implications.

In his Dictionary of Biblical Theology Jesuit scholar Xavier Leon-Dufour writes: "A calling supposes a change in being. . . . God's call catches a man at his ordinary work, interrupts him in the midst of his friends, and involves him in a project known to God alone."

Think about it. There they were, Peter, Andrew, James and John, hauling in the nets, perhaps grumbling about the catch or the weather. Their backs were sore.

Their fingers ached. They were cold and wet. And then they heard Jesus words:

“Come follow me. And I will make you fishers of men.”

That last is not a very specific job description either for them or for us today. When we heed Jesus' summons we enter into an open-ended project without much of a description. But through this call to follow Him Jesus surrounded himself first, with the apostles and then with other disciples, Some accepted immediately and without equivocation. Some rejected the call for the flimsiest of reasons. Others initially followed but then said “I’m outta’ here.”

To be called by Jesus is to be called into His mission. That mission is mediated and supported by the Church It is not supported or helped by the feelings of the cafeteria Catholic who picks and chooses what he or she will believe while rejecting other dogma, the type who may invoke vague generalities about Jesus and love to push an agenda but assert, “I really can't get into that Real Presence stuff.” The type who will rationalize the meaning of thou shalt not kill.

The call to follow Jesus does not mean insisting, in the manner of the former speaker of the house, that I am a good Catholic on one hand while proselytizing abortion on the other, the same former speaker who hysterically protested the recently passed Born-Alive Act that ensures that infants born alive following an attempted abortion receive the same protection of law and same degree of care as any newborn, rather than having the execution completed outside the womb.

March for Life two days ago on Friday—the 50^th since Roe—was a needed reminder of how far we have to go before life, particularly vulnerable life at its very beginning in the womb and at the very end in old age, is protected from premature and intentional termination. Alas, a 51^st march will be necessary next year.

Paul’s letter reminds us that the Church is not perfect. It never was and never will be perfect. It is, after all, made up entirely of sinners from top to bottom. However, it is what has come down through two millennia by preaching the salvation found in Jesus, the same Jesus who is present in the midst of the assembly, who is found in the words of Scripture, the same Jesus whose Real Presence in the Eucharist is a gift offered to us daily.

We heard in the psalm:

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek:

to dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord

and contemplate his Temple"

Sit with that prayer. Meditate on its those images. They will yield much fruit.

____________________________________________________

After finishing tertianship in Australia I had the opportunity to visit Vietnam for ten days. Indeed, I turned 62 in My Tho in the Mekong Delta not too terribly far from Saigon. It was a remarkable and, in some ways, transformative experience. The heat and humidity were killers. I was a bit concerned about the camera but I had no problems. The photos below were taken along to coast south of My Tho at what I think was Go Cong beach.

At low tide the distance from shore to waterline was enormous.

Scanenging for mussels at low tide. I had instant flashbacks to picking mushrooms in the woods with m dad as a child.

The colorful fishing boats alone made having the camera a blessing. Don't know when the tide was to come in but they were going nowhere at the moment.

More of the fishing boats

It was a Saturday. I assume school was in half-session. As soon as he saw my camera this young boy began mugging for it. Wonder how tall he is now? What is he doing?