Scott Hahn with David Scott
Today’s Liturgy gives us a lesson in ancient Israelite geography and history.
Isaiah’s prophecy in today’s First Reading is quoted by Matthew in today’s Gospel. Both intend to recall the apparent fall of the everlasting kingdom promised to David (see 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Psalm 89; Psalm 132:11-12).
Eight centuries before Christ, that part of the kingdom where the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali lived was attacked by the Assyrians and the tribes were hauled off into captivity (see 2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chronicles 5:26).
It marked the beginning of the kingdom’s end. It finally crumbled in the sixth century B.C., when Jerusalem was seized by Babylon and the remaining tribes were driven into exile (see 2 Kings 24:14).
Isaiah prophesied that Zebulun and Naphtali, the lands first to be degraded, would be the first to see the light of God’s salvation. Jesus today fulfills that prophecy—announcing the restoration of David’s kingdom at precisely the spot where the kingdom began to fall.
His gospel of the Kingdom includes not only the twelve tribes of Israel but all the nations—symbolized by the “Galilee of the Nations.” Calling His first disciples, two fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, He appoints them to be “fishers of men”—gathering people from the ends of the earth.
They are to preach the gospel, Paul says in today’s Epistle, to unite all peoples in the same mind and in the same purpose—in a worldwide kingdom of God.
By their preaching, Isaiah’s promise has been delivered. A world in darkness has seen the light. The yoke of slavery and sin, borne by humanity since time began, has been smashed.
And we are able now, as we sing in today’s Psalm, to dwell in the house of the Lord, to worship Him in the land of the living.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, January 27, 2008
In today’s liturgy the Evangelist Matthew, who will accompany us throughout this liturgical year, presents the beginning of Christ’s public mission. It consisted essentially in preaching the Kingdom of God and healing the sick, showing that this Kingdom is close at hand and is already in our midst.
Jesus began his preaching in Galilee, the region where he grew up, the “outskirts” in comparison with the heart of the Jewish Nation which was Judea, and in it, Jerusalem. But the Prophet Isaiah had foretold that this land, assigned to the tribes of Zebulun and Napthali, would have a glorious future: the people immersed in darkness would see a great light (cf. Is 8: 23-9: 2).
In Jesus’ time, the term “gospel” was used by Roman emperors for their proclamations. Independently of their content, they were described as “good news” or announcements of salvation, because the emperor was considered lord of the world and his every edict as a portent of good. Thus, the application of this phrase to Jesus’ preaching had a strongly critical meaning, as if to say God, and not the emperor, is Lord of the world, and the true Gospel is that of Jesus Christ.
The “Good News” which Jesus proclaims is summed up in this sentence: “The Kingdom of God – or Kingdom of Heaven – is at hand” (cf. Mt 4: 17; Mk 1: 15).
What do these words mean? They do not of course refer to an earthly region marked out in space and time, but rather to an announcement that it is God who reigns, that God is Lord and that his lordship is present and actual, it is being realized.
The newness of Christ’s message, therefore, is that God made himself close in him and now reigns in our midst, as the miracles and healings that he works demonstrate. God reigns in the world through his Son made man and with the power of the Holy Spirit who is called “the finger of God” (Lk 11: 20).
Wherever Jesus goes the Creator Spirit brings life, and men and women are healed of diseases of body and spirit. God’s lordship is thus manifest in the human being’s integral healing. By this, Jesus wanted to reveal the Face of the true God, the God who is close, full of mercy for every human being; the God who makes us a gift of life in abundance, his own life. The Kingdom of God is therefore life that asserts itself over death, the light of truth that dispels the darkness of ignorance and lies.
Philoxenes of Mabbug (d. 523)
Sermon 4, 77
Just as the eye that is sound and pure receives the bright rays sent to it, so the eye of faith, with its pupil of simplicity, recognises God’s voice as soon as a man hears it. The light that shines forth from God’s word arises within him, he hastens towards it and welcomes it, as our Lord said in the Gospel: “My sheep hear my voice… and they follow me,” (Jn 10,27)…
This was the purity and simplicity with which the apostles followed the word of Christ. The world could not hinder them nor human custom hold them back, neither could any of the benefits that pass for something in this world stand in their way.
These souls had experienced God and were living by faith and, amongst such souls as these, nothing in the world could prevail over God’s word. This word is weak in souls that are dead; for that soul is dead in whom the Word becomes weak instead of strong and in whom God’s teaching becomes unconvincing rather than sound.
For man’s whole activity carries him towards that by which he lives. Whoever lives for the world places his thoughts and senses at the world’s service, whereas whoever lives for God is directed towards his powerful commands in all he does.
All those who have been called have immediately obeyed the voice that called them since the weight of love for earthly things was not attached to their souls. For the bonds of the world are a weight on the intellect and thoughts and those who are attached and entangled by them hear the voice of God calling them only with difficulty.
But the apostles and, before them, all the just and the Fathers were not like this. They obeyed like living men and went out freely because nothing in the world held them by its weight. Nothing can attach and entangle souls who experience God. They are open and ready in such a way that the light of the divine voice finds them waiting to receive it whenever it comes.
