This past September 30 Pope Francis named every Third Sunday of Ordinary Time to be celebrated as the Word of God Sunday.  He wrote: “I hereby declare that the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the word of God. This Sunday of the Word of God will thus be a fitting part of that time of the year when we are encouraged to strengthen our bonds with the Jewish people and to pray for Christian unity.” Pope Francis said this Sunday has ecumenical value and is the path to authentic and firm unity.   
 
This Word of God Sunday is to remind us that we should never take for granted God’s word that He has given us through the scriptures, where we find spiritual nourishment in order to have a full relationship with all peoples where ever they may be.
 
How appropriate for this Sunday as we hear the Word of God in our readings  firmed up in today’s Gospel of Matthew.  Jesus has just left his thirty year long home of Nazareth where he was raised by Mary and Joseph, and has moved by himself to Capernaum on the shores of Lake Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.
 
He did this after hearing that John the Baptist was arrested.  It was a chance for him to avoid the authorities if they had any ideas of arresting Him.  You see this region was considered a gentile district though Jewish people lived there too.  This region was conquered some 700 years or so before Jesus by the Assyrians and most Jewish people were deported to Assyria and in turn, if you will, many Assyrians were sent there to settle the lands as their own.  They were pagans, gentiles.  And their descendants were still very prevalent in the region.  So the region was often called Galilee of he Gentiles.
 
How appropriate that right off Jesus begins his ministry in this district preaching not only to the Jewish people but also to the gentiles.  He was ecumenical from the beginning of his ministry, reaching out to all and not by waiting for people to come to him, but engaging people by going to them, in their villages, farms and in the countryside.  He engaged all, Jewish people and the pagan who lived in the gentile land of gloom and darkness. 
 
Capernaum was a busy trading center with a vigorous fishing industry.  And on that shoreline he engages his first disciples, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew and then the brothers James and John.  They weren’t the elite but rough hard working fishermen and on Jesus’ call they drop everything and follow Jesus. Peter, and his brother Andrew were right in the middle of casting a net into the sea. John and James leave their father on the boat and their nets.  The four stop everything they were doing and leave everything and everyone behind. They follow Jesus without reservation without question, without any so called negotiations.  And off they go through out the region of Galilee where most people are poor, hungry and oppressed and they never look back, their lives changed forever. 
 
In the First Century in this ancient world, 9 out of 10 persons lived in poverty, lived close to the subsistence level or below it. The ruling class, the wealthy made up rarely more than 2-percent of the population.  The majority of the population, the peasants, their biggest burden was supporting the state and the privileged class through taxation of goods and any money they may have.
And then came the unclean, the lepers, the lunatics, the beggars, the outlaws, petty criminals and the underemployed who lived by their wits or by charity.
 
In Matthew Jesus is the itinerant preacher, a wanderer and doesn’t seek comforts of the familiar but goes to find those who are in need of the nourishing Word of God, where ever they are, whomever they are. Jesus is a man of action and love seeking all who live in darkness.    Finally for the people there a light has dawned.  They see now a great light. 
 
That light for them is the same light for us. Jesus still brings us the great light of his Word, a light to live by, the light of charity, of caring, of hope for us and all mankind.  He tells all there in Galilee and us today to repent, to cleanse themselves of every sin, small or horrific, to engage in a total change in the way we see everything and value everything, to be with Him in every way and so enter into Jesus’ eternal vision of complete happiness that awaits all who returns his merciful love not only for him but for the poor, the sick, the enemy.  Jesus asks us to talk with him, engage with him not only personally but with others and through others.  He desires deeply that we be with Him in every way and to be His hands and feet and heart for all, family, friends, strangers, and in so doing to be his eternal companion.  When Jesus proclaims that we repent that the kingdom of God is at hand, this is not necessarily a threat but a life giving promise, a promise of hope, of salvation, of peace and an eternal union with Him. 
 
On this Sunday of the Word of God, let us celebrate The Word of God, the scriptures, and recognize we need the Word to be alive in us. We must read the scriptures every day and hold the Bible close to our hearts for it is the way of truth, of right living. And too we thank our own lectors at Mass who deliver to us the biblical readings for us to hold close to our hearts and souls. And we thank our ministers who bring Christ in the Eucharist each Sunday to the sick and the elderly who are home bound. If any parishioner would like to join in these efforts please talk to Father or me. God bless them and you.