3 Sunday Ordinary Time, 23 January 2011, Matthew 4:12-23

Your Word is a lamp for my steps

When I was a child, during the summer we would go and help out on my Uncle's farm in Gurteen. My brothers and I were fascinated with the machinery, none moreso than at silage time when all the neighbours would get together and draw in the silage. 
 

A very important part of this process was that dinner would have to be made in the middle of the day for the farmers. Given that my Uncle is a bachelor, my Mother would inevitably end up cooking the meal.

And then the men would arrive in from the fields. As children, we were sent scurrying, our meal would come afterwards. We watched, fascinated, as mountains of bacon, cabbage and potatoes disappeared into hungry mouths. This was accompanied by steaming hot, sugary tea peppered with laughter. Wisdom about the process of cutting silage was passed from the older to the younger.

You have made their gladness greater,

you have made their joy increase;

they rejoice in your presence

as men rejoice at harvest time,

as men are happy when they are dividing the spoils. (First Reading, Isaiah 8:23-9:3)

The memory of the rejoicing at harvest time is the memory chosen for us today. It is one of the ways for us to understand what it is like to walk in the light of Christ.

Perhaps our image of trying to live the Christian life is peppered with difficulties and hardships, oppression and abusive authority. And yet here, another image is presented, an image of sharing in the riches of life that God has offered to us.

Our image of all of life is challenged in the light of Christ. How we see and experience life is challenged – our image of our whole life is changed in the light of Christ. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? We have to rub our eyes and take another, fresh, new look.

In this fresh understanding, when the call of Jesus comes: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand." we are ready for it. Our understanding has changed, and we are ready, like Peter and Andrew, James and John, to share the Good News with everyone.