The Word of God in today’s Liturgy invites us to contemplate the beginning of Jesus’ public activities, as recounted by St. Matthew in his gospel. From the evangelist’s emphases we can note and better understand some fundamental characteristics of Christ’s mission and, by extension, the mission of all His disciples. Such an in-depth study is very significant and more than appropriate in today’s context of the Sunday of the Word and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that we celebrate during these days
It is a historical fact that Jesus began His public activities from Galilee, the northern region of the land of Israel. This is emphasized in various sources, and succinctly and emblematically, St. Peter the Apostle announces it thus in one of his discourses in the Acts of the Apostles (which we have already heard in this year’s Feast of Baptism): “[You know] what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all” (Acts 10:37-38).
Starting from that fact, St. Matthew the Evangelist wanted to further accentuate the dual nature of this Galilee from which Jesus began His public mission. On the one hand, it is the “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,” i.e., the territory that was handed over as an inheritance to these two tribes of Israel (after entering the Promised Land). On the other hand, it is also called the “Galilee of the Gentiles,” i.e., Galilee of the pagan peoples, because after the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (721/722 B.C.), the non-Israelite peoples who slowly populated that region went there to live. This “dual” identity of Galilee is mentioned in the writing of the prophet Isaiah (first reading), and this is precisely taken up by the evangelist Matthew to emphasize the fulfillment of Scripture for the beginning of Jesus’ mission.
Galilee then in Jesus’ time is that of the Gentiles and Israel; it thus becomes the image of the whole world in which Israelites and non-Israelites, Jews and Gentiles, coexisted. It was the (micro)cosmos in which Jesus operated and fulfilled God’s plan of salvation for all humankind. In that land Jesus, Son of God began it all, thus arose God’s “a great light” for “the people who sit in darkness.” So much so that He Himself will declare, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). He is the light that illuminates and reveals, in word and deed, the true face of the merciful and compassionate God who loves and calls everyone to know, that is, to experience, His love in order to enjoy life in abundance with and in God. This begins in the Galilee of Israel and the Gentiles.
In this regard, it is significant that St. Matthew, at the end of his gospel, will “take” everyone, Jesus and His disciples, back “to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them” (Mt 28:16). There the last appearance of the Risen Jesus to His disciples will take place, before the Ascension, and there He will leave them the great missionary command: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations […]. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:19-20). Thus closes the circle of Jesus’ mission on earth: from Galilee to Galilee, and so now begins the mission of His disciples, of all, including those who are “doubting” (cf. Mt 28:17): from Galilee to the whole world whose symbol remains that land of Zàbulon and Naphtali. Though going to the farthest ends of the earth, Jesus’ missionary disciples will mystically remain in this Galilee of His, where He will continue to be with them in their missionary activities “always, until the end of the age”. Therefore, His disciples will also have the same mission and vocation to be “light of the world,” just like their Master Jesus, God’s light shining in the darkness, in the Galilee of the world.
In light of the symbolism of “Galilee,” it is no coincidence that the evangelist Matthew later wanted to offer a summary description of Jesus’ activities, “He went around [periēgen] all of Galilee, teaching [didaskōn]… proclaiming [kēryssōn]… and curing [therapeuōn]”. The accentuation of “all l of Galilee” seems to emphasize the “universal” and “ubiquitous” character of the mission, while the four verbs summarize the four basic actions of Jesus, the Father’s Mission par excellence.
Firstly, “He went around [periēgen]” and this is the first characteristic of God’s mission, in the sense of “the most important.” It encompasses (or supports) the other actions, particularly that paradigmatic triad: “teaching [didaskōn]… proclaiming [kēryssōn]… and curing [therapeuōn]”. Jesus “going around” reflects a historical truth: the historical Jesus went from village to village to carry out the mission entrusted to Him by the Father. He advised His disciples to go as He did, but with an important clarification: “Do not move about from one house to another (Lk 10:7)” (from village to village yes, but not from house to house, perhaps to avoid religious tourism instead of missionary travel!). It should be recalled here what Jesus declared to the first disciples in Capernaum, when they sought Him early in the morning after a day of activity and found Him in solitary prayer in a deserted place outside the city: “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come [literally I went out]” (Mk 1:38). Jesus, God’s missionary, who divinely came forth from the bosom of the Father, is now always “going out” to the villages of “all of Galilee.”
Moreover, as mentioned above, in His mission Jesus performed the three concrete actions that incorporate all the others. What is more, as St. Matthew points out in the text, the universality of the recipients/beneficiaries of these actions is indicated: “teaching in their synagogues” for the Jews, “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,” – implied for all, but particularly for those who did not attend synagogues, “and curing every disease and illness among the people” – for one another (in fact, Jesus performed healings both in and outside the synagogues!)
On this triad of actions one could speak endlessly, but it suffices for us here to point out that they are intrinsically connected with each other in Jesus’ missionary activities; they go together and aim at the integral liberation and salvation (body, soul, spirit) that God wants to accomplish through Jesus, His Messiah, as St. Peter the apostle affirms in his discourse mentioned above, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
This triad will be fundamental and to be remembered and accomplished by every missionary of God in the school of Jesus: teaching, proclaiming, healing, of which the focus was and always is proclaiming [kēryssō], also translatable as preaching, the good news of the Kingdom of God. Indeed, the very first action and word of Jesus that the evangelist mentions is this: “From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Mt 4:17).
The announcement of the coming of the Kingdom of God (here called “kingdom of heaven” to avoid, according to the Jewish way, mentioning God directly) goes together with the cordial invitation to conversion to welcome this new God-given reality in Jesus. Indeed, conversion, or rather the action of being converted, as we explained in one of the previous commentaries, is not limited to a simple abandonment of sins in order to return to God; according to the etymology of the Greek word metanoiete “repent!”, it also and above all implies a thinking (noeite) beyond (meta), a going beyond the usual patterns of reasoning, to believe the Gospel announced and fulfilled by Jesus and to embrace the gift of the Kingdom that has come to all in Him.
Interestingly, according to Matthew’s gospel (which we hear today and on the Sundays of this liturgical year A), such a cordial but pressing invitation to conversion for the sake of the Kingdom was not first announced by Jesus. It was already on the lips of John the Baptist who thus becomes Jesus’ forerunner even in the fundamental proclamation of the Kingdom. The proclamation of the approaching Kingdom will later resonate in the proclamation of Jesus’ disciples, sent by Him to prepare for its coming, as their Master and Lord recommended, “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Mt 10:7). This always implies a call to conversion, that is, a change of mind and heart to accept the gift of the Kingdom in Jesus, and this exhortation is made explicit by St. Peter at the end of his first preaching on the day of Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ…” (Acts 2:38).
This proclamation-invitation will always remain at the heart of the mission of the disciples who are followers of Jesus, called to work in every time and place for the conversion of all to God, starting with themselves. Therefore, Blessed Paolo Manna, tireless missionary in Burma and founder of the present Pontifical Missionary Union, proclaimed in his time “All the churches united for the conversion of the whole world,” a phrase also quoted by St. John Paul II in the Encyclical Redemptoris Missio as the watchwords for the mission of the Church today.
In this regard, it should be emphasized again that the call to conversion also and especially applies to all Christians, who are called to become more and more what they are by virtue of baptism: “holy and immaculate in love,” “light of the world,” or as Pope Francis emphasized in the Message for World Mission Sunday 2022: “prophets, witnesses, missionaries of the Lord.” It is about the ongoing conversion in the life of faith of the disciples, who due to human frailty do not always live up to their vocational “holiness,” as happened already for the first Christians in Corinth who “merited” the solemn exhortation of St. Paul the Apostle: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose” (1Cor 1:10). It should be remembered that the Lord Jesus Himself prayed to the Father in moving words before the Passion for unity in love among His future disciples, “So that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one” (Jn 17:21,23). Let us then pray:
O Lord, make us feel still and ever more in us Your heart all taken up for the Kingdom of God as well as Your cordial invitation to conversion to Your Gospel of peace and love. Help us to constantly live out this conversion in our lives, so that we may become ourselves, with You and in You, the living invitation, in word and deed, to conversion to the Kingdom for those who do not know You. And in this our mission to be witnesses of You and Your Kingdom, help, Your disciples, to be more and more united in Your love, overcoming the divisions that exist in our churches and communities. Let Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved and resplendent with Your Light for all the world. Mary, mother of Christ and mother of His disciples, pray for us! Amen!
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