Recruitment Day: Being a Word-Fighter
Isaiah 8:23-9:1-3; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23
Wildfires have come to be regular occurrences in our lives, whether they be the Australian experience, American reality or Canadian seasonal cases. These occurrences, in addition to house fires and arsonists’ ventures, make fire-fighting very important today. Homes and vehicles have fire-extinguishers and communities have fire-stations. The irony of all these fires is that they cannot extinguish themselves, human beings are always needed to fight fires of all kinds and propositions. Thanks to human solidarity, fires everywhere are attended to, even if that requires assistance from other countries and communes.
Well, a different conflagration needs extinguishing today—Ignorance-of-Scripture—needing a different kind of fire-extinguisher—Christianity. The constant siege on Christian doctrines, the recurrent amoral practices of our times, and the regular lukewarmness in Church attendance point to the power of ignorance—the ignorance of the Word-of-God. This ignorance needs Word-Fighters, those men and women willing to confront the ignorance of the world with boldness, tenacity and exemplary lives.
Who is a Word-Fighter? It is you and I, it is every human being able to read and write, every lips ready to confess Jesus as Lord, and to live according to the Word-of-God!
Take the instance of today’s gospel. On the very day John-the-Baptist was imprisoned, Jesus recruits replacements for John-the-Baptist. The offense of John-the-Baptist was being a Word-fighter. He confronted the authorities of the day with the power of the Word-of-God, and he was jailed, and eventually beheaded. He condemned an illicit marriage and abuse of power by a king who took his brother’s wife, even with the consent of the woman in question; yet, the Word-of-God considered that wrong! The king’s use of his power to silence the Word-of-God, by the imprisonment and beheading of John-the-Baptism, only provided occasion for Jesus to recruit new witnesses and Word-fighters: Andrew, Peter, James and John.
It is recruitment day today—Sunday of the Word of God—to launch the battle against the ignorance of the Christian Scripture. The “Constitution” of Christians is the Bible, and their moral code are the teachings of the Bible. Every recruit of the Bible is someone ready to live out the teachings of the Bible, teach it to others, and ready to be imprisoned for it. If today’s gospel talks about the imprisonment of John-the-Baptist, it simply means that imprisonment is part of the job description of a Christian, a Word-Fighter. If some of the recruits of our gospel reading abandoned parents and jobs to go preach the Word-of-God, it means that sacrifices of all kinds are required for being a Christian, a Word-Fighter. If Jesus didn’t put a copy of the Bible in the hands of his disciples when he called them, it simply means that relationship with God, Jesus-Christ, is a pre-condition for being a Word-Fighter. One needs to know the Word-of-God, Jesus-Christ, before sharing him with others.
The tragedy of Christianity is the lack of knowledge—“knowledge” is what we do, NOT what we have in our heads. Our lifestyles show whether or not we have the knowledge of the Word-of-God, not just what the Word-of-God says.
Today, our second reading gives us an example of an anti-Christian and anti-Word-of-God lifestyle—disunity. When the Corinthians were bragging about who their favorite Word-fighters were—I am for Cephas, I am for Apollos, I am for Paul—which, unfortunately, is the case today, when some Catholics claim to be for Pope Benedict XVI and others for Pope Francis, St. Paul has a question for us all: “Is Christ divided? Was Pope Francis or Benedict XVI crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Benedict XVI or Pope Francis?
This Sunday of the Word-of-God is the enthronement of God and the practices of the faith we received from the apostles. It was a relationship before it was written down as Bible. Its power comes from God, and passes through the examples of our human lives. The Word-of-God is meant to be lived, not just to be aware of its contents. The power of the Word-of-God is the threat of its example to an amoral world, its ability to keep an amoral world on edge. Of course, the reward of being a Word-Fighter is martyrdom and imprisonment here and now, but eternal life hereafter. In several places in the Bible, when Jesus was asked a question, he responded: “what do you read in Scripture?” “That is not what Scripture says!” “Scripture says that . . .” “That is not the intention of God!” “You have left the Word-of-God and attached yourselves to human traditions”; “It was not so from the beginning”; etc.
The Word-of-God must be our reference point, as it was for Jesus. Like a driving code, a manual of instruction and a map, the Word-of-God must come to life through the examples of our lives for it to be the Word-of-God. We must NEVER forget John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and lived among us”. Christians must help Jesus-Christ to leave the pages of the written Bible to come alive on our streets, our homes and our government houses. If Jesus-Christ wanted to remain a prisoner of pages of the Bible, he would have dropped from heaven as pieces of papers/papyri/scrolls to be read. He came in a human form, lived among human beings, and left directives on how human beings could become gods. In fact, for God, “in-the-beginning was the deed/action”—Creation and “in-the-end is the deed/action”—Judgment: “I was hungry you gave me to eat . . .”
If Galilee of the gentiles is where Jesus went to find new recruits for the promotion of the Word-of-God, as Isaiah the prophet prophesies in our first reading, races, cultures, nationalities and status do not count; all that counts is for the Word-of-God to come alive through our words, actions and relationships. Yes, “knowledge is power”; but the knowledge of God is human actions, the defense of the every single teaching contained in the Bible as generations of apostles martyrs and confessors did before us, and continue to do today. Indeed, most Word-Fighters have been branded CONSERVATIVES and BIGOTS. You know what, there is only One Judge—Jesus-Christ!
You and I can borrow a leaf from Jesus, when we face moral dilemmas, when life’s troubles assail us, when doubts envelope us. When in doubt about pro-choice protests, ask yourself “Does Scripture support that?” When gay parade is on the street, ask yourself “Was it this way from the beginning?” When wars rage or abuse of any kind, ask yourself: “Is this God’s intention?” When the media and governments tell you what to do, ask yourself: “Is this God’s tradition or humans’?” When you see or meet beggars on the street, ask yourself: “How did Jesus treat beggars?”
Assignment for the Week:
If you can afford it, offer someone a copy of the Bible this week or share a Bible reading with someone this week