Today is the third Sunday in Ordinary Time
A few days ago I read Fr. Frank De Siano’s Online Homily and thought I would share it with you. Fr. Frank is part of the Paulist order. The Paulists used to have a pretty significant effort to support evangelists through their Paulist Evangelization Ministry but that was closed down by the Paulists in 2024 so they could refocus their efforts on vocations. However, Fr. Frank still writes a weekly homily. I was unable to find a way to link to it as their old web site is not being maintained so I copied it below for you.
I hope you enjoy.
| SUNDAY HOMILY FR. FRANK DE SIANO, CSP ORDINARY TIME, 3RDSUNDAY “GALILEE OF THE GENTILES” |
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| “The other side of the tracks.” We hear phrases like this whether there’s a railroad involved or not. It refers to “people different from us” for one reason or another. Once I was visiting a new city and went for a walk. The priests in the rectory asked me where I went. I told them the streets and areas. “You didn’t go past that street, did you?” They looked shocked. “It’s so dangerous none of us would ever go there.” In effect, the Gospel is telling us that Jesus was from “the other side of the tracks.” We hear about Galilee, Zebulun and Naphtali; along with the first reading from Isaiah, composed six hundred years earlier, it is called “the land of the Gentiles.” That means, people from this area are different; they come from “the other side of the tracks.” These were the areas conquered by Assyria and incorporated into a Gentile nation. They were almost foreigners. These words make us recall the words in John’s Gospel when Nathaniel, on first hearing about Jesus, asked if anything good could come out of Nazareth. Jesus answered that question in a way that changed human history. God sent his Son to us from “the other side of the tracks.” God did not send his son as an important priest in the Temple, nor as a leader of esteemed Pharisees, and certainly not as a warrior waiting to lead a rebellion. God does with his Son Jesus what God did throughout Jewish history: he chose the lowly, the poor, the seemingly weakest so that people would know that God was at work and not our puny human strength. “People who live in darkness have seen a great light!” That is to say, people who come from “the other side of the tracks” are the first ones to acknowledge that God is acting in their midst. This explains the prime audience of Jesus: the poor, the blind, the beggars, the people who were excluded. From the lowliness of their lives, they are able to see the presence and action of God. This is Paul’s problem in Corinth. He formed this community, mostly Gentile people who came to believe in Jesus, and now they are fighting with each other over who is the best. They’ve broken into groups, with each group looking down on the others. Paul knows that all of them were in desperate need of salvation, that all their lives were diminished until they came to know Jesus and experience God’s love. Paul points out that Jesus was Crucified, a death given to people deemed the lowest of society; he will not let Christ’s death be emptied of meaning. The Scriptures remind us that we have all received the grace of God even though none of us deserves it. We are all from “the other side of the tracks,” in our spiritual need and our sinfulness. That’s where God goes; that’s where Jesus comes from. That’s why he can call the simplest of workers, fishermen, to be part of his mission. The one thing that makes the Kingdom of God invisible is arrogance. As we see Jesus begin his ministry in the Gospel today, we look past all the massive churches and Cathedrals we have built over the centuries. Our faith is not in grand gestures or buildings. Our faith is in the one who came to shine light where there was none, and to show God’s love where everyone thought it could never be shown. We come in our human weakness, but we also come in God’s grace. |
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great week.
Peace, Bob
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