Homily: Monday after Epiphany (and St. Raymond)

I've included my homily below, but I thought I'd first say a few words about the saint we honor today. Today is the memorial of St. Raymond of Penyafort. He was a very smart man from Catalonia who died in his 100th year in 1275. He's always been one of my favorite saints. 

As I said, St. Raymond was very bright, a bit of a prodigy who was teaching philosophy by the time he was 20 and then went on to earn a doctorate in law. Raymond was made an archdeacon by the Bishop of Barcelona but a few years later answered God's call to join the Dominicans. A gifted preacher, he ministered to the Muslim Moors and to those Christians who had returned from Moorish slavery. 

As the confessor to Pope Gregory IX he spent years in Rome codifying canon law, work that actually defined much of the Church's law well into the 20th Century. Ultimately he was elected as the third master general of the Dominicans. 

To include his other accomplishments would require many pages, so I'll just say that the mere reading of his life makes me tired. Whenever I think I'm overworking,  I simply think of St. Raymond and he charges my batteries. 

By the way, St. Raymond resigned from his position as the Dominican master general when he turned 65, citing age as a factor. He then went on for another 35 years, working along the way. I consider him the perfect candidate for patron saint of The Villages, our massive retirement community here in Florida. 

A few years ago, Diane and I spent almost a week in Barcelona. During our stay we spent a day or two exploring the city's beautiful old Cathedral. So you can imagine my surprise and delight when we came upon his sepulcher in a small side chapel. I said a brief prayer to this tireless man, asking him to intercede for me, to help me carry out my ministry with the same kind of enthusiasm and energy for which he was known.

Here's a photo I took of his sepulcher:

St. Raymond, pray for us.

And now...today's homily
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Readings: 1 Jn 3:22-4:6; Ps 2; Mt 4:12-17;23-25
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Matthew, writing to a largely Jewish audience, didn't hesitate to present Jesus as the "new Moses," as the promised One Moses himself described in Deuteronomy [Dt 18:18]. Jesus, the lawgiver, through the New Covenant, fulfills the Mosaic law of the Old Covenant, deepening its meaning. As Jeremiah prophesied:

"I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts..." [Jer 31:33]

But the Gospel doesn't restrict Jesus' mission, for He came not only to Abraham's descendants, but to the entire world. We heard this in Luke's Gospel when the aging Simeon, at the Presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple, exclaimed:

"...my eyes have seen your salvation. which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel" [Lk 2:30-32].

It's a message aimed not just at a handful of Bethlehem shepherds and wise men from the East, but one that reverberates throughout the world and through all time. Matthew first proclaimed this Gospel message of universal Good News in the genealogy that opens his Gospel. There we encounter a family of saints and sinners, of Jews and Gentiles.

Also in that family was John the Baptist who paved the way for Jesus, His forerunner in every respect. John would soon be martyred, but for Jesus the Cross comes later. First He must preach and heal. He must form His disciples so the Church they lead can preach the Good News and "make disciples of all nations" [Mt 28:20].

And so with John's arrest, Jesus began his ministry in earnest. He stepped into the world beyond His Jewish roots, and carried the Good News to "the Galilee of the Gentiles," as Matthew and Isaiah described it. [See Is 9]

He got right to work, didn't He? He taught in the synagogues, preached the Kingdom, and healed all who come to Him. It must have been an exhausting pace, such that word of His work spread beyond Galilee and Judea to the Gentiles of the Decapolis, of Syria, and beyond the Jordan. They came to Him with their sick and He cured them all: the physically ill, the mentally ill, the spiritually ill.

At this point Matthew tells us nothing of the content of Jesus' preaching, only that He echoed John's call to repentance in readiness for the coming Kingdom. But, you see, it wasn't His preaching that first brought those in need to this One they had never heard. How did Matthew put it?

"His fame spread to all of Syria" [Mt 4:24].

Truly remarkable! He was famous in a country He'd never even visited - and all without Facebook, or Twitter, or TV. No, it was simply His Presence in the world. Jesus, the Word of God Incarnate, need only be present and act, doing God's work in the world. It's work that only God can do, showing the world that God's creative power, His truth, and His very nature are bound up in the Presence of His merciful love.

In deep humility, a divine humility beyond our understanding, Jesus tells all that the saving, victorious Presence of God is at hand, that nothing will ever be the same. It's the same Presence He will ultimately entrust to His Church for all time through the gift of the Eucharist. This bread and wine offered by us become God Himself, His Real Presence, which He uses to heal our weakness and lead us to eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus must fill the world with His healing, saving Presence, for it is this Divine Presence that draws the world to Him. His call is a call to repentance, to conversion:

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" [Mt 4:17].

This repentance, this metanoia, as the Greeks call it, means more than being sorry for our sinfulness...much, much more. It calls us to something new, a radical change of being, really a change of everything, because we now recognize God's Presence in our midst. 

It generates a hunger within us, a hunger for God's Kingdom, a hunger for the living Bread that God gives "for the life of the world" [Jn 6:51]. Living in God's Presence and with God's Presence living in us, we can then say with Paul:

"...yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" [Gal 2:20].

Like Matthew's world of the Gentiles, our world, too, is "in darkness...a land overshadowed by death" [Mt 4:16]. Only Christ's Presence can bring God's saving light into this world, and that's where you and I come in.

We must be the God-bearers, those who, like Jesus, must act always in love. We must carry Him and His healing Presence to those who know Him not. Let that be our prayer today: that God will lead us to those who need His glorious Presence to enlighten their darkened lives.