January 26, 2014
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
(Mt 4:12-17)
When Jesus the Messiah began his public ministry, he did something unexpected. Instead of centering his ministry in Jerusalem and Judea to the south, he established his headquarters in the region of Galilee far to the north, in the ancient tribal regions of Zebulun and Napthali. This area was part of the old northern kingdom, long since conquered by the Assyrians, who scattered the ten “lost tribes” of Israel. At the time of Jesus it was a mix of pagan gentile peoples, and small colonies of Jewish settlements.
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
(Mt 4:12-17)
When Jesus the Messiah began his public ministry, he did something unexpected. Instead of centering his ministry in Jerusalem and Judea to the south, he established his headquarters in the region of Galilee far to the north, in the ancient tribal regions of Zebulun and Napthali. This area was part of the old northern kingdom, long since conquered by the Assyrians, who scattered the ten “lost tribes” of Israel. At the time of Jesus it was a mix of pagan gentile peoples, and small colonies of Jewish settlements.
Zebulun and Naphtali from ARC on Vimeo.
Jesus began his ministry there, in fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah (Is 9:1-2): “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.”
This Gospel reading is very apropos today. As in the time of Jesus, we live in small parish colonies in the midst of a gentile society given over to pagan ways. At one time our land too was more Christian in its values and laws, but that ancient Christian heritage has been banished and exiled. Now our land too has fallen into darkness and become overshadowed by death.
This week we remembered a black day in our nation’s history: January 22nd, the legalization of abortion by the Supreme Court in 1973. On this day it became legal to put away innocent people in our society, for the sake of convenience and personal autonomy. For the first hundred years of its founding, our nation was marred by another injustice: the legalization slavery. Abortion is a hundred times worse, because whereas slavery treats a human being as a piece of property to be owned, abortion treats a human being as a life to be disposed at will. January 22nd, 1973, was the day our nation definitively rejected God.
On that day we put blinders over our eyes, and we deliberately chose to live in the darkness instead of the light of Truth. There are all sorts of gymnastics we do to try justify abortion: arguments, lies, denials, and twisting of language. We focus on the difficult, extreme, and exceptional medical cases, as if that has anything to do with what was actually legalized in 1973. We speak about freedom of “choice,” but overlook the fact that the choice involved is actually a “child,” another person.
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The supreme court invented a new “right to privacy,” nowhere mentioned in the constitution, entirely overlooking the right to “life,” enshrined and proclaimed in all the foundational documents of our nation. People talk about “reproductive freedom,” and “women’s health,” when in fact freedom is destroyed, health compromised, and motherhood injured. People talk about “health clinics,” when in fact they are death camps, factories of human destruction surrounded by high walls and barbed wire.
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 | Our society talks about freedom, personal rights, and being legal, yet why do clients walk into these places hidden by umbrellas. This people chooses to live in darkness, in a land overshadowed by death. |  |
Very simply, the legalization of abortion is the legalization of murder. It is a denial of God, who is the Creator and author of life. It is the failure to respect the mystery of human life, which is an individual miracle of God each time it happens. It is a failure to respect the responsibility of marriage and sexuality, and if we are honest we have to admit that the real reason we keep abortion legal in our nation is because we wish to indulge in fornication and not have to worry about the consequences, which is a child. Very simply, then, abortion is a rejection of God and His law, in order to justify a selfish lifestyle that suits our convenience.
 | Evil can only take place in darkness, when there is denial and lies. Evil always tries to present itself as something acceptable and even good, and will try justify itself by any means, but in the end when the veil is lifted and it is seen directly for what it is, the result is always found to be tragedy, harm, suffering, and death. The same serpent who promised Adam and Eve life and delivered death, seduces society today with false promises of freedom, ease, and convenience, but delivers instead the darkness of death: being cut off from God. |  |
In his 1995 encyclical entitled Evangelium Vitae, the “Gospel of Life,” pope John Paul II clarified how respect for the sanctity of human life, from the moment of conception to natural death, belongs to the domain of God alone; not to man, not to society, not to legislators or supreme court judges, presidents, or politicians. Abortion is therefore not a political issue, it is of the essence of the faith. In his encyclical, the pope invoked his infallibility in this teaching, to proclaim that the life of the unborn, from the moment of conception, is as sacred as any other time of the human life span, and is to be treated as such. In other words, to profess that abortion can be acceptable is to deny the faith of the Gospel. It is a heresy. A Catholic cannot be pro-abortion without denying the Gospel of Christ.
The Gospel is a Gospel of the dignity of life. We just completed the season of Christmas in which we proclaim the Incarnation, how God became man. When did God become man? At the time of the nativity when he was born? Or at the moment of conception when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be with child? In what way would it be conceivable, to imagine even for an instant, that the Blessed Virgin Mary or St. Joseph, had some kind of right or freedom, or justification, to terminate her pregnancy?
Every human life fulfills the plan of God. Every human life is co-created between two human beings and God the Creator. God is the creator of the human soul directly, which is immortal and spiritual. The man and woman are procreators with God, of the material body for the new person. Man cooperates with God; God cooperates with man. Man must respect the laws of God.
“The people sit in darkness… and dwell in a land overshadowed by death.” When Jesus came into that region, he began to preach saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Today the Church must continue the work of the Jesus, which is to bring light in the darkness. And the Church must do what Jesus did, which is Preach and Heal.
We must Preach the truth and issue the call to repentance. With regard to the sin of abortion, the Church does so forcefully, and attaches the penalty of excommunication to any Catholic who would procure an abortion, or assist with its procurement. Excommunication is the Church’s ultimate call to repentance. Abortion is not just a mortal sin, it is the crime of murder. It destroys the family and society, and it destroys the person who commits the crime. It requires deep repentance and conversion, and healing which only Christ can bring.
When Jesus went about the towns and villages of Galilee teaching and healing, he exposed evil and sin, and brought the healing graces of God to people who were suffering under the lies and dominion of the evil one. Clarity about the truth, and forgiveness for those who repented, is how Jesus established the Kingdom. The Church must do the same today.
Pray for bishops and priests, that they might be bold and fearless in confronting this evil, and especially confronting politicians who would justify this crime. As Catholics we can never support pro-choice, pro-abortion political candidates or platforms, and we must be vocal in our opposition to the point of public witness, protest, and demonstration. It is one of the greatest scandals in our society that among the proponents of this sin are some who claim to be Catholic.
Revelation (Rv 12:4) depicts the devil as a great dragon who attacks the woman, seeking to devour her unborn child. When Jesus preached and healed, he expelled the demons. The Church today, by the power of the Gospel and the healing ministry of confession, has Christ’s power to expel demons, and establish God’s Kingdom. It is a great spiritual battle, and one we all share.
Mary is the Woman whose offspring will crush the serpent. We, united with Christ, are her children, and we share, with her, that mission. Let us invoke our Blessed Mother as we seek to fulfill this mission Christ gives us today: to bring light to those who dwell in darkness, and to a land overshadowed by death.
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