“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” – this proclamation by the prophet Isaiah is some of the most beautiful and inspirational words imaginable. They do indeed give us great reason for rejoicing and joy. You see they were the foretelling of the weight and burden of the law being lifted from us and borne on the shoulders of our Lord Jesus Christ. The burden which had condemned us was taken from us by the only one strong enough to bear it. Yet, He came not only to relieve us of this, but also to call us to a new way of living and commissioned each of us with a new purpose. This is a wonderful revelation for all of Gods people.
There is however, a caution that given to us as well. In our second reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the people in Corinth, he cautions them against there being division among them with respect to whom they belong to and are oriented toward. The people had begun to attach themselves more to the messengers than to the message and whom it came from – our Lord Jesus Christ. They allowed human inclination toward a fixation on those with whom they were familiar to distract them from the real source of their salvation. This is a danger that still exists to this day. If we allow ourselves to become disenchanted with our faith because we have encountered a bad situation or experience with a person or group that is active within the Church community and lose sight of who we are really there for, the same problems can manifest. Likewise, if we place too much emphasis on a relationship with someone within the Church community and allow that to become more of our focus than the real reason for our being there, to worship our Lord Jesus, we are in equal peril. Our focus in our faith, must always be our Lord Jesus Christ, and He alone is to be our example, or standard, and our reason for participating in His Church.
In our Gospel reading today, our Lord encounters Peter and Andrew, and James and John and calls them to a life devoted to drawing others toward salvation through Him. He will make them his instruments of teaching, of healing, and of salvation for the people. The thing that we must always keep in mind, is that the call to serve our Lord is unchanged even today, as are the challenges and distractions. He calls each of us to go out and to spread His word, and to bring others to salvation. We need to heed this call as exultantly as Peter, Andrew, James, and John did when they were called to be “fishers of men”. We also need to make sure that we stay as grounded as they were in their understanding of their own unworthiness and limited abilities and instead rely completely on our Lord to give us the graces to accomplish His purposes. Our Lord did not choose Peter and the others because they were eloquent, or sophisticated, or their great understanding of scripture. He chose them because He saw their willingness to rely on Him and to place their faith, hope, and trust completely in Him without the need for analysis or explanation. He looks to us for the same faithful acceptance. In the end, while we should certainly try to know our Lord through His word, yet we must still keep in mind that all our searching, all our learning, all our gathering of facts about our Lord, are not a substitute for our humble acceptance and faith in our Lord – it is one thing to know about Him in our minds, it is another to know Him in our hearts. To truly draw near to the light is an act of faith.
The Deacons Bench 