Sunday – 3rd Week in Ordinary Time – A

My dear friends, in today’s readings we get a glimpse into the divisions that sometimes, or a lot of times, have plagued the Church, have plagued us in society, and have destroyed what is supposed to be a team effort, a familial journey together as we approach the throne of God and our heavenly homeland.

In today’s second reading from Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, he is already sensing—even back then, two thousand years ago, at the dawn of Christianity—division. And he says, “What is this I hear about you? ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ 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 the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning” (1 Cor 1:12–17).

My brothers and sisters, Saint Paul is emphasizing that our salvation is not in some individual who may have taught us about Christ, who may have shown us the path of righteousness, but our salvation is in Christ—in Christ. Not in a priest, not in a preacher, not in a nun, not in a parent, not in a brother or sister in Christ. This is the emphasis Paul is making. Do not get lost in rivalries that are born of pride, because pride is what cast Lucifer out of heaven. We are far too plagued with division in the Church today, and it has to start with us—you and me. We are called to be peacemakers. Yes, we must fight for what is righteous and true, but we must always remember to love. Jesus himself commands us to love even our enemies (cf. Mt 5:44), and here we are often speaking not of enemies, but of people who simply think differently than we do.

Another point we must reflect on is what Paul means when he says, “For Christ did not send me to baptize.” Did Paul baptize? Yes. We know from 1 Corinthians 1:14–16 that he baptized Crispus and Gaius and the household of Stephanas. Paul is not denying the importance of baptism. Rather, he is correcting the divisions in Corinth. The apostles founded churches and ordained ministers, and those ministers carried out the ordinary pastoral work, including baptism. The Corinthians, however, were turning ministers into factions: “I belong to Paul… I belong to Apollos.” And this is a bit of a natural inclination. You know why, too. When I was ordained a priest, I wondered from which apostle I came because of course, all valid ordinations need to be linked to the succession of the apostles in the bishops, the successors of the apostles. And so I wondered, I wonder which apostle I would be traced back to. So this is a natural inclination to want to know, to want to identify with a group or a person for sure. But we cannot lose sight of the one person that matters the most, and that is Jesus.

This is highlighted beautifully in today’s Gospel. When Jesus hears that John has been arrested, he withdraws to Galilee. He leaves Nazareth and goes to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, “that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled” (Mt 4:12–16). “The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light; on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen” (Is 9:1). It is no accident that Jesus begins his ministry not in Jerusalem, not in the shadow of the Temple, but in Galilee of the Gentiles—wounded lands, forgotten lands, lands of mixture and marginalization. As Saint Jerome notes, "Christ illumined first those thought unworthy of light." Saint Augustine sees Zebulun and Naphtali as symbols of humanity weighed down by ignorance and sin, and Christ comes first where humility is required, because "... the physician goes to the sick, not to those who think themselves well."

Saint Francis would have loved this Gospel. Galilee of the Gentiles is the roadside, the forgotten village, the leper colony—precisely where Francis ran toward, not away from. Christ pitches his tent among the little ones. He walks with them, heals them, teaches them, and reveals the truth of God to them. My brothers and sisters, the Lord wants to reveal himself to you as well, to make you peacemakers—people who build up the Church, the Body of Christ, rather than divide it. This requires humility, the humility of the only-begotten Son of God, who though equal to the Father, descended from his throne to dwell among the brokenhearted.