Dear Friends,
We almost always ignore the geographic references in the
Scriptures as they are read at Mass. Just as we didn’t know Kabul and Khandahar
until our troops were there, Scriptural geography means nothing to us until we
can relate to those places. Today, I invite us to do just that. Relate to the
cities, towns, and countrysides
mentioned in the Gospel . Today, we find
Jesus moving from Nazareth to Capharnaum on the Sea of Galilee to the rest
of Galilee called Zabulon and Naphtali, and beyond.
Nazareth is Jesus’ home town – the place where he
experienced the love of his family, where he grew, made mistakes and practiced
carpentry. It was the place where he first became a people watcher, learning
from adults and children the nuances of life.
Where is your Nazareth? Where did you learn to give and
receive love? Where did you get your images of what it means to be a mature
woman or man, or to believe in God? Take time later today to think of your own
Nazareth…
The second place in our meditation is the seashore of the
Sea of Galilee. To this day, it’s a welcoming place where fishermen work the
waters. It was here that Jesus called Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John.
These dedicated fishermen stopped what they were doing,” at once”, we are told,
and followed Jesus. The seashore was a place of friendship made firm, care and concern. Moreover,
Capharnaum became Jesus’ adopted home.
Where is the place where people love you so much that they
stop what they are doing when you arrive, just to spend time with you? Where is
the place you feel most at home – the place where the world feels tender for
you and the people you are with?
Not everywhere we visit in life offer us nurturing, love and
friendship. Jesus traveled the rest of Galilee whose ancient names
were Zebulon and Naphthali. Isaiah names the area this way in the first reading and Matthew repeats the name. Zebulon and
Naphthali were places where people lived
in darkness and were in dire need of healing.
Where are the dark places of your life? The places that make
you tense? The places where people need healing? It’s not easy to go to these
places or to be with these people. It wasn’t easy for Jesus to go beyond his
comfort zone. It’s even more difficult to take the warmth and confidence of Nazareth and the seashores of our life and
live them out in an unwelcoming place. Jesus did so and invites us to do the
same.
Eventually, Jesus traveled into other foreign places:
Samaria and Decapolis across the Jordan, Judea and Jericho and Jerusalem
itself. In some places he found kindred spirits. In other places, he was
rejected. Some people wanted everything he could give them. Some tried to trip
him up. Others believed in him.
Always, Jesus was faithful to His Father and to who He was,
to all that He was at Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee . As his followers, we
are called to be no less, wherever we go across this world of ours.
-Sister Joan Sobala
