3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday of the Word of God)

In the 16th century mystical poem, “The Dark Night,” the poet, St. John of the Cross, used the metaphor of darkness to signify soul’s journey to union with God. “The main idea of the poem can be seen as the joyful experience of being guided to God. The only light in this dark night is that which burns in the soul. And that is a guide more certain than the mid-day sun”.
Darkness and light are both places, states of soul, that reveal God. For the prophet, Isaiah, and the gospel writer, Matthew, the darkness was a place of unknowing in the sense of ignorance and death that the people are delivered from by the light of God’s revelation. In Matthew’s case, it is Jesus the Christ, who is the deliverer.
We see the extent of change that took place in the fishermen who became Jesus’ disciples. After Jesus had appeared in their life, those fishermen radically and dramatically changed their direction. Matthew writes that as Jesus was walking by the sea, he saw some fishermen hard at work, and he called them to follow him. And they abandoned their boats and commitments and followed Jesus.
What can we learn from this gospel passage?
1. Through baptism we have become God’s chosen people. However, we live in the world dominated by evil forces. Like the people of Israel we constantly turn away from God. We lack the knowledge of God. We live without God. We live in darkness and in fear of death. Today, let us heed, therefore, Jesus’ call to repentance: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ “Repentance” not merely involves contrition or an apology, but a change in direction, a change in behavior and a change in one’s life.
2. The most powerful revelations from God come from inside our souls. God can come to us either way. But for me, considering St. John of the Cross’s soul journey experience adds a new depth or twist to the texts: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2). “
Let us turn our hearts and souls to Jesus Christ so we too may be transformed by the love and light of Christ.