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God let man discover the light through the lesson of
darkness (Isaiah 8:23-9:3). And God sent His Son made
man, who called simple Galilean fishermen to proclaim
with him the good news of salvation to humankind
(Matthew 4:12-23).
Darkness
over the land
The
reversal of the fortunes of Israel is what the prophet
Isaiah was presenting to the people in this text, which
overlaps with the first reading last week on the Feast
of the Sto. Niño. In the aftermath of the
Syro-Ephraimite crisis, Assyrian under Tiglat Pileser
III had invaded and occupied the territory of the
northern tribes of Zebulun and Napthali (ca. 733 BC),
the first east of
Carmel
in southern Galilee and the other the northernmost
territory of the
kingdom of
Israel.
Out of Israelite lands, Assyria carved out its provinces
of Dor, Megiddo and Gilead, the lands known as the Way
of the Sea, Transjordan and Galilee of the Nations.
It was a
time of darkness for the People of God. It was as if the
night had replaced daylight, and people lived and walked
in darkness. The land had become a land of death; the
political collapse, the social disintegration and the
religious devastation that accompanied the foreign
occupation and oppression were death knells. These dark
shadows of defeat were God’s chastisement of an
unfaithful people.
The
great light
The
reversal of fortunes is symbolized by light. The prophet
held out to the people the hope for the salvation that
God alone could give his faithful ones. This divine
action would be like the breaking of day and the
bursting upon the land of a bright light that dispels
darkness. The degraded and distressed land of Zebulun
and Napthali have been given back their honor, and
anguish and gloom have taken flight. The tremendous joy
of salvation has embraced the people, much similar to
the excitement of harvest time, when delicious fruits
convey assurance of new life, and the heady victory in
battle which brings the happiness of spoils divided, and
the relief when one is freed from the yoke of military
servitude and the rod of social repression.
The
direct references to God’s saving action in the
second-person form come to a head in the allusion to
Midian, which recalls the seven-year long subjugation
and oppressions the Israelites endured from the hands of
the Midianites until God chose Gideon to lead the people
to a miraculous victory over their enemy. By the grace
of God, truly the fortunes of the People of God have
been reversed.
The
light calls
The text
from Isaiah, which also overlaps the first reading for
the Christmas liturgy at midnight, has been applied by
Matthew to the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry in
Galilee, as we have it in the gospel reading for today.
Indeed, the Nativity of Jesus (and the Feast of the
Santo Niño) and his mission, concretize the light of
God’s saving goodness shining brilliantly on the world
in and through the one Christ-event. The end of John the
Baptizer’s ministry introduced the start of Jesus’
mission; the former was in anticipation of a future
event, Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies, the
great light longed for.
With the
announcement that the reign of God is finally at hand
and with the call for all to repentance, Jesus now
summoned some followers. Sets of brothers—Simon and
Andrew, James and John—were called from their occupation
to become “fishers of men.” Jesus wanted companions in
his work of saving people from the total darkness of the
sea and the abyss. The family context of the readiness
for God’s grace is obvious, and the vocation to a
radically new way of life clearly facilitated by sibling
unity. Jesus’s followers were to be witnesses of his
proclamation of the good news and of his teaching in the
synagogues, also of his curing those suffering from all
sorts of disease and illness.
Alálaong
bagá,
the shadows of darkness we experience in our world long
and wait for light. And Jesus Christ as the great light
that dispels humankind’s enveloping darkness, as the
dawn into our night, has called us Christians to join
him in the mission of snatching people from the abysmal
darkness of sin and evil, from the gloom of poverty and
self-destruction, from the distress of untruth and
injustice, from the servitude of violence and
oppression. It is vital to recall that in baptism in the
symbolism of the lighted candle, we have received “the
light of Christ . . . to be kept burning brightly.” The
baptized from the earliest times are referred to as the
“enlightened” ones by Christ and tasked “to walk always
as children of the light.” In the flame of our Christian
faith we are called to be lights wherever we may be. Any
deep darkness around us is an indictment, just as the
spots of joyous lights that enliven us are a triumph of
fidelity and shared goodness.
For more of my reflections and works, visit my blogsite:
http://alalaongbaga.multiply.com. |
