25 Jan 2026 – 3rd Sunday, (A)
25 Jan 2026 – 3rd Sunday, (A)
(1) Isaiah 9:1-3 (Also Is. 8:23-9:3)
Isaiah foretells a Saviour for the people who walked in darkness
In the former time God brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
Responsorial: Psalm 26:1, 4, 13-14
R./: The Lord is my light and my salvation
The Lord is my light and my help;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
before whom shall I shrink? (R./)
There is one thing I ask of the Lord,
for this I long,
to live in the house of the Lord,
all the days of my life,
to savour the sweetness of the Lord,
to behold his temple. (R./)
I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness
in the land of the living.
Hope in him, hold firm and take heart.
Hope in the Lord! (R./)
(2) 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
Even in the early Church there was disunity, through rivalry and schism
I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apol’los,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23
Jesus calls his the fishermen to leave everything to follow him
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles- the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea-for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John , in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Can we change our way of living?
When Jesus began his public ministry of preaching and healing, John the Baptist had already been arrested, putting and end to his movement of religious revival. At that point, instead of going back to Nazareth (i.e. instead of going home) , Jesus went to Capernaum. This marked a new beginning, whose purpose is described in a verse of prophecy: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, light has dawned.” Jesus would later refer to himself as the light of the world; and, in commissioning his disciples, he would tell send us out also, to be light to the world. His vocation is our vocation too.
In times past the idea of “vocation” was focussed mainly on doctors, nurses, priests and religious. But now it has been restored to its original, wider application, and all our baptised people are invited to experience their calling from God. There is nothing dramatic about this. It just means that I don’t just stumble into the Christian way by default, but that God has chosen me: “I have called you by name; you are mine.” “You didn’t choose me; no, I chose you, and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that would remain.” If the gospel is now, and I am every person in the gospel, then, through the gospel of today, I am being called again.
The starting-point of Jesus’ message was very like that of John the Baptist. “Turn from your sins, and back turn to God, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” Turning away from sins is a voluntary act, which can be reversed. There is a story to illustrate that point. When Leonardo da Vinci was asked to do a painting of the Last Supper, he searched far and wide for models for each person in the scene. He found a fine-looking young man, full of vitality, as the perfect model for Jesus. In the following months he did the same for models for each of the apostles, leaving Judas till last, not knowing how to represent him. Finally, he came across a tramp whom he thought was ideal for the part. Leonardo brought him to his studio, but hile the work was in progress, he came to a shocking realisation. This man had been with him months before, representing Jesus. In the meantime he had taken to drink and lost his way, and was now homeless. It was a shock to Leonardo, and a prod to conversion for the man who modelled as Judas.
Key Message:
Why is my Jesus interrupting me?
Homily:
Testimony of a teenager: I never felt that I will grow up to be something because from the time I remember as a child, my mother always used to say looking at me, “You are never going to change.” I lost all confidence in myself. I never realised what it means to be confident or to be hopeful of a good future. Can parents say, “Jesus will work in you and make you glow”
God calls the “never going to change” persons to be the “change makers” in the world.
There was a slave trader by name John Newton known for cruelty, profanity, and godlessness. By his own admission, he was morally corrupt. If anyone would say, “God could never use him,” it would have been John himself. He did not wake up one day saying, “Lord, use me.” He woke up thinking only about himself. But one day, in the middle of a terrible storm at sea, when death seemed certain, John Newton cried out to God with a desperate heart. And God answered.
Now if we notice carefully: God did not wait for John Newton to become good before calling him. God called him through a situation and that calling made him good. That is how grace works.
John Newton later left the slave trade, became a priest, and wrote a hymn many of us know by heart, “Amazing Grace”. The man who once chained people wrote words that have freed millions of hearts.
Do you feel that you cannot have a sweet talk with your Jesus while you are still on earth? Do you feel that you are too far from Him? The further you go, the closer He will come to you.
We notice something important in the life of the Apostle Paul. He was blinded before he could see clearly. Sometimes God has to stop us before He can lead us. We want God to change our situation, but often God wants to change our direction. Temporary discomfort can lead to permanent transformation. We may be waiting for our Jesus. But in reality, Jesus will be waiting for us.
Are you wondering why my Lord Jesus is interrupting my ordinary roads and ordinary routines? His interruption is His way of calling us. In today’s Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus interrupted the peaceful fishing routine of Peter, Andrew, James and John. He calls them for a better fulfilment. Imagine when they left their fishing nets and walked, did they know what they would be 5 years from then? They were not even aware where their next meal would come from.
Our Lord Jesus calls us in each phase of our lives. He makes mandatory changes. Actually all the time He is calling us. Few times He will come with a big change request. But most of the time with small incremental change requests. All the change requests are only for our good, though we may assume it is for His good. When the Holy Spirit nudges me to do something difficult, I used to think, it is for His service. But at a later point of time, when I saw what I had lost, I realised all that was for my good.
And now let us self introspect ourselves: When Jesus calls, will we listen or we resist?
From today’s Gospel we understand that Jesus does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
He meets us where we are but He loves us too much to leave us there.
Our mistakes do not cancel God’s plan.
All that matters is our readiness to answer His call.
The Light of the Word on the Religions and in the Religions
The light of the Epiphany continues to shine in our Old Testament readings three weeks later. Last week we heard the phrase “Light of the Nations” (Isaiah 49:6: “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth”; also 42:6). Vatican II chose to begin its foundational document on the Church (21 November 1964) with those inspiring words: “Christ is the light of the nations (Lumen Gentium)” and the Church desires “to bring to all people the light of Christ which shines out visibly from the Church.” For the prophets of Israel it was Israel itself, as the people of God, that was the light of the nations. This meant that the biblical writers often refer to the other nations, and cast their minds back to primeval times, long before Abraham was ever heard of. In the time of Adam’s son Seth, we are told, “people began to invoke the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26).
Paul VI, too, kept the nations, the cultures and religions of humanity, in his mind and heart. The theme of his first encyclical, Ecclesiam suam (6 August 1964), is dialogue with humanity, and it begins with the words “The Church was founded by Jesus Christ to be the loving mother of the whole human family and minister to its salvation.” He continues: “The aim of this encyclical will be to demonstrate with increasing clarity how vital it is for the world, and how greatly desired by the Catholic Church, that the two should meet together, and get to know and love one another.” A point Paul VI liked to make is that the Church exists not for itself but for the world. I remember seeing him on a televised Christmas Mass (probably for the Epiphany in 1976) when he declared ardently: “I see the religions of the world gathered around the crib, and as I say this my voice trembles, not with uncertainty, but with joy, la mia voce trema, non d’incertezza, ma di gioia.” On 3 December 1964 (feast of St Francis Xavier) he quoted the Upanishads in India: “From the unreal lead me to the real; from darkness lead me to light; from death lead me to immortality,” an unprecedented gesture.
In Ecclesiam suam, Paul VI talks of concentric circles of dialogue: first dialogue with the human race, then dialogue with worshippers of the one God, and finally fellow-Christians. This stance forbids the tones of scorn and contempt in which very many Catholics would speak of Jews and Muslims and of Protestants in the time before Vatican II (and with much less excuse today). Here is what Paul VI says about the second circle: “We would mention first the Jewish people, who still retain the religion of the Old Testament, and who are indeed worthy of our respect and love. Then we have those worshipers who adhere to other monotheistic systems of religion, especially the Moslem religion. We do well to admire these people for all that is good and true in their worship of God. And finally we have the followers of the great Afro-Asiatic religions.” Here is the basis on which Nostra Aetate, the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions” (28 October 1965) a year late, in the last days of the Council. It is also the basis of Pope Francis’s declaration in Singapore that “all religions are paths to God.” Paul VI hastens to add: “honesty compels us to declare openly our conviction that the Christian religion is the one and only true religion, and it is our hope that it will be acknowledged as such by all who look for God and worship Him.” This is the standard “inclusivist” Catholic attitude to the religions, which Benedict XVI tightened by declaring (CDF document, Dominus Iesus, 2000) that the multiplicity of religions was de facto but not de iure, and which Pope Francis loosened somewhat by seeing all religions as on the same path together to the Kingdom, on terms of equal respect.
The pioneers in dialogue with the religions were missionaries, such as Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), Joao Rodriguez (1562-1634), Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656), Ippolito Desiderio (1684-1733), all Jesuits. Another batch of prophetic figures were the scholars of primitive religion, who drafted various theories of the origins and evolution of religion in the long millennia preceding biblical times, such as Max Muller (1823-1900), E. B. Tylor (1832-1917), Andrew Lang (1844-1912), William Robertson Smith (1846-1894), James Frazer (1854-1891) , and Wilhelm Schmidt, SVD (1968-1954). The incredible industry and mental breadth of these legendary figures (who were oppressed by the narrow concerns of church polemics of their day) lies in the background of Vatican II’s vision of the religions as sharing the light of the divine Word, which “enlightens every one coming into the world” (John 1:9). Fr Schmidt felt compelled by his faith to find the God of the Bible more clearly present in the earliest known religions than could be convincingly demonstrated. Yet no ancient society lacked a religion. All have known the sense of human limits that raise the question of religion, all have known the sense of gracious and numinous presences and forces which leads to adoration, and many cultures have erected powerful and beautiful religions which awe us even when they are considered dead. It is an understatement to say that many enigmas remain, but let us hope that the Church (as well as the scholarly world) resumes its enthusiasm for these great questions, so as to let the light of the Epiphany shine out anew on believers and the world at large.