Today, brothers and sisters, is the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Green Time), and finally SS Jesus / SS Messiah leaves the quiet harbour of Nazareth and sets sail on the sea of his mission, the Holy Spirit the wind in his sails.
Since 2019, the Sunday of the Word of God, a day for re-savouring the light of God’s word, especially as it comes to us in its written form in the Bible and as we hear it in the Liturgy. And we express our gratitude to our readers by blessing them.
Today is also this year the last day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and, providentially, in the 2nd reading God’s word through Paul is a summons to avoid division and cherish unity. See how on target the Word of God can be!
Let’s focus now on the other readings. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwell in a land of deep darkness on them has light shone.” The Lord is my light and my salvation” said the Psalm like an echo. And when Jesus begins his mission at Capernaum, the evangelist Matthew who loves showing how the Lord was always fulfilling prophecy in whatever he did, quotes the same passage from Isaiah. We might wonder, what’s this about Zebulun and Naphtali? Why should the divine light shine on them especially? Zebulun and Naphtali were two of the twelve tribes of Israel, their territory precisely in the north of Israel, territory that in Isaiah’s time had been invaded and occupied by Assyria. Eight centuries before Christ, then, Isaiah was telling those people: don’t fear, the Lord will re-establish his kingdom among you and the enemy will disappear. And now Jesus begins his mission in Galilee, in the north of Israel, at the north end of the Lake of Galilee. He’s the real fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy. He is reconquering the Holy Land, the people of Israel, for his Father. “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And this is why in the next episode we see Jesus calling the first 4 of his Twelve Apostles, who were to be the princes of Israel reconstituted gathered round Jesus, its messianic the King. Let’s mention too: Jesus is coming fresh from his baptism, that baptism took place on the eastern side of the Jordan. Like his namesake Joshua, Jesus would then have crossed into Israel. He was beginning a campaign of spiritual reconquest.
And so we come to the word of God. A great light, says St Matthew, is now shining out. The beginning of Jesus’ mission is precisely, light rising, darkness fleeing – the darkness not of an enemy occupation, but of sin and the shadow of death, the darkness that can sit in our hearts and even grip our lives. The light is Jesus himself. And it’s his word. “From that time, says St Matthew, he began to preach.” He proclaimed the kingdom of heaven. The sword that Israel’s conqueror has in his hand is the double-edged sword of God’s Spirit-filled word, which cuts into the darkness of our hearts and lets the light in. Jesus doesn’t have an army, he comes with something that’s so weak and yet so strong: human words that are the words of God. “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”. And the effect is dramatic: “Immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.” In the beginning, God said, “let there be light”, and there was light. His word made light; it created something new in the darkness. Here he calls the four first disciples and makes them something new. “For God, to say is to do” says St Thomas Aquinas.
So let’s cherish the word. It can scatter our inner confusions and make us what God wants us to be.
Practically, let’s keep doing our best to listen to the Sunday readings and spend time with them. Copies of Magnificat were given away earlier in the year; it’s a great resource. It has the weekday readings too – so we can access these even if don’t attend weekday Masses. And it’s easy enough to find the readings on the web, through Universalis and other means too. “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” The Light walked past 4 young fishermen in northern Israel, turned its beam on them, and brought them salvation. It made them saints at the end of the day. Sunlight brings us Vitamin D. The word of God does even more. It stops us just sitting in the shadow of darkness or sitting mending our nets. It wakes us up, gets us up. It puts us on the way of God’s commandments. It makes us bearers of light to each other.
May the word of God be the light of our lives!
St Mary’s Cathedral, 25 January 2026
