Third Sunday of Ordinary Time [A]

January 26, 2020

Matthew 4:12-17

After the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus begins His public ministry. Jesus left Nazareth, His hometown, and moved to a more crowded and bigger town, Capernaum. Crudely speaking, Jesus did urbanization. This strategic move of Jesus was to support His mission. With a dense population and with better access to neighboring towns, Jesus could minister to more people in a more efficient way.

However, Jesus’ movement from Nazareth to Capernaum is not just about practicality and preaching strategy. Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah. “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali…the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light…” For many of us, Zebulun and Naphtali do not make any sense, and we tend to skip these verses. Yet, for the first-century Jews, this prophecy is a game-changer because God will gather the lost twelve tribes of Israel, and re-establish the Kingdom of Israel.

Let us go back to the Old Testament a little bit. In 2 Samuel 7, God promised that the throne of David will last forever, however after the reign of Salomon, David’s son, the kingdom of David was divided into two. After some hundred years, these two kingdoms, one by one, were destroyed by the enemies, and the twelve tribes were scattered among the Gentiles. Among the tribes of Israel, only Judah, and Benjamin were able to return to the land of Israel, while the rest, including Zebulun and Naftali, were lost. Jewish people in the time of Jesus knew well that one of the missions of the expected Messiah is to restore the Kingdom and to gather the lost tribes of Judah.

Jesus, the Messiah, came indeed to fulfill this expectation, and no wonder if the first thing He did was to preach that the Kingdom of God is at hand. It is called the Kingdom of God because it is the Kingdom promised by God, built by God, and governed by God. It is the restored kingdom of David, and much bigger than the first David’s kingdom.

However, there is a fundamental difference between David’s kingdom and Jesus’. David’s kingdom was established to fight Israel’s enemies. His kingdom was filled with nobilities, generals, and armies. It was characterized by political rivalry, a struggle for power, and treachery. Finally, it is no different from other kingdoms in the world. All is about “game of thrones”. And like other earthly kingdoms, the kingdom of David was bound to crush as well.

The Kingdom of God basically goes in the opposite direction. It is the Kingdom built upon faith in God, service, and love for others, even to the point of sacrifice. When we were baptized, we become the members of this Kingdom, and in fact, we are transformed into the children of God, calling Him as our Father. However, despite being heirs to the Kingdom, we are not princes, lords or generals. We are servants and lovers. The higher our positions in the Kingdom, the more love and service we shall render. That is why the priests do not have wives, because they are busy serving the people! No wonder St. John of the Cross would say, “in the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved.”

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno

First Sunday of Lent

March 10, 2019

Luke 4:1-11

The Spirit leads Jesus to the desert and Jesus remains there for forty days. The questions are: why does the Holy Spirit bring Jesus to the desert? Why does it have to be forty days? If we are familiar with the Old Testament, we recall that the journey of the Israelites in the desert lasted for forty years – the great exodus. After the great escape from the slavery of Egypt, they needed to walk through the desert before entering the Promise Land. Yet, it is not simply about the story of greatest escape in the history, but how God formed Israel as His people. In desert, God made a covenant with Israel through the mediation of Moses. In desert, God gave the Law as the basic guide for the Israelites living as His people. In the desert, God provided them with water, manna from heaven, and protected them from their enemies. However, in the desert also, the Israelites rebelled against God. They made and worship the golden calf. They complained a lot, and they wanted to kill Moses. It was a foundational story that covered almost the four Books of Moses [Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy].

The Spirit brings Jesus to the wilderness because Jesus is going to enter into His Exodus. Jesus is the New Moses who leads the New Israel into the new exodus. If we want to follow Jesus and call ourselves as the Christian, we need to follow Jesus to the wilderness and the new Exodus. Yet, the desert is far from being a comfortable place. It is a place of trials and temptation. But, why does Jesus want us to follow Him into the place of trials? Because Jesus understands that faith without temptation is empty, hope without challenges is fantasy and love without sacrifice is cheap.

If we read closely the story of Israel in the desert, they could reach the Promised Land in just two-week time even by walking. But, why did it took them forty years? It is because when they were about to enter the Land, they became afraid of the native people who stayed there, and they complained against God. They were just one step away from the promised land, and yet they squandered the opportunity because they did not have faith in God. Then, God punished them, and placed them in the desert for forty years. They needed to learn the lesson in a hard way.

Living a comfortable life does not make us really grow in faith. In fact, it is in the harshest places that we discover God alive and fresh. When I visited the hospitals, meeting the patients with terrible sickness like cancer and kidney failure; when I visited the jails, talking to inmates, I witnessed the stronger faith, hope and love.

Once I met this lady, just called her Mary. She was a single mother, and her only child was a special child. His brain is shrinking, and he cannot do anything but clap his hands. It was a truly difficult situation, and what made it worse was when some other Christians who professed that Jesus is Lord and Savior said to her that the child was a curse. She was living in a cruel world, and terrible people around him. She was figuratively living in the wilderness. And I asked her what made her remain active in the Church. She said, “because I know God loves me through my special child.” Once again I saw a faith that moves a mountain.

Often it is through trials, challenges and the “desert” that we learn the true value of faith, hope and love.

Deacon Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP