Third Sunday “A”
Matthew 4, 12-23
January 25, 2020
The word that impresses me from the Gospel this
evening is “immediately.” Immediately the disciples left their nets and
followed Jesus. Immediately James and John left their father and they began to
follow Jesus. It seems that in this world there is little that we do
immediately especially in terms of religion. The disciples met Jesus and it
changed everything, they were ready to leave everything to follow Jesus. They
became followers of Jesus.
That is what it is all about. That is what it means to
be a Catholic Christian. We are called to be followers of Jesus. It is just
about the creed and what we are supposed to believe, it is about Jesus it is
about following Jesus. Following Jesus means to live like Jesus. But in order
to be a follower of Jesus you first have to meet Jesus. To be a follower of
anyone you have to meet the person first. You don’t just get on the highway and
begin to follow someone else, no you meet him or her first and then you begin
to follow.
So our Church needs to be a place of encounter.
Whenever anyone comes here they should encounter Jesus. This week we had 9
funerals in our Church, my hope is that everyone who came here, especially
those who don’t come here every Sunday that they meet Jesus. We had baptisms
and a 15a, they also should be encounters with Jesus.
We encounter or we meet Jesus in the sacraments, in
all 7 but most especially in the Eucharist. It is important that we have good
well-celebrated masses, they help us to encounter Jesus, but all of the
sacraments should be an encounter with Jesus.
We encounter Jesus in his word, everyone time we read
God’s word; it should be an encounter with Jesus. Our lectors have to be well
prepared if they are going to proclaim God’s word, we need a good sound system
etc. But obviously we can read the bible at home so we should help you to be
read the word of God at home.
We also encounter God in one another. So it is
important that we are reach out to one another and create an atmosphere of
welcome in this place.
That is the first step; we need to encounter Jesus
like Peter and Andrew, James and John. We need to encounter Jesus and then we
begin to follow him. What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?
Returning to the scriptures, most especially the
Gospels we can see what it was that Jesus did in his ministry on this earth. To
make it easy for me I have reduced it to 3 c’s. Jesus cured, comforted and
challenged. Jesus cured the sick; this means that as followers of Jesus we need
put the sick, the homeless, and the poor in first place in our community. They
need to be our first concern; they can’t take a back seat in our community.
Secondly Jesus offered comfort; most especially people who are suffering loss,
any kind of loss but most especially the loss of a loved one. Those who are
suffering need to be comforted. Third Jesus challenged the status quo. He
challenged the priests and leaders to be faithful to their calling. He
challenged those structures that oppressed and he set people free.
2000 years ago Jesus called his first disciples. They
immediately left what they were doing and began to follow Jesus. Once we have
an encounter with Jesus we need to follow Jesus. We need to do today what Jesus
did then so that the sick are visited, the sorrowing comforted, and the
structures that oppress are challenged.
By being a community that cures, comforts and
challenges we help people to encounter Jesus. As people encounter Jesus they go
out to do the same and the cycle continues again. If we are faithful followers
of Jesus we will bring many more followers to Jesus.
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