January 21st
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mt. 4/12-23

Background

Galilee was the "wild west" of Palestine, a rough, unruly place with bandits and revolutionaries wandering about and a population which was considered by the religious elites in Jerusalem to be uncouth and semi-literate religiously and infected by the paganism of the area. It was called the "Galilee of the Gentiles" because there was a large population of Hellenistic pagans mixed in with the Jews who had only recently begun to resettle a land which had been devastated by earlier wars. A rough parallel to what Jesus did when he walked along the lakeside and summoned his disciples would be if he had walked down the pain street of Tombstone Arizona and selected the odd cowboy and merchant and drifter for his band. He certainly did not search for the best and the brightest of his time, though he probably knew of what the men would be capable in years ahead. There are, perhaps, more potentially great men (in the world) than humankind recognizes.

STORY

Once upon a time a coach named Gary Barnett went to a high school that had two great players in its senior class. He told them both of all the educational advantages of attending Northwestern University. He also promise that the school would turn the corner in its football program and that within four years they would play in the Rose Bowl. The young men listened politely and then laughed, also politely. Northwestern in the Rose Ball, coach, you gotta be kidding. We want a real football program. We're going to Michigan and you'll be watching us on television on New Year's Day. Well, this last New Year's day someone was watching the Rose Bowl on television and it wasn't Coach Barnett. The young man had missed a golden opportunity when they chose Blue over Purple. One wonders how many other people Jesus invited to come follow him, turned him down. And how often we miss a golden opportunity when we turn away from a challenge Jesus presents to us.

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