In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“In those days,” we are told in the previous chapter of the Gospel of Matthew before today’s reading, “John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’” (Matthew 3:1–2) And today, to the north, in Galilee of the Gentiles, comes the same message, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The blessed Forerunner had been arrested, for daring to speak truth to Herod, and Christ comes to take up the same call. For the message of the Old Covenant is the same as the New, the line of Prophets leading up to the cousin of Christ all call for repentance.
To repent means to change my mind—to turn away from sin and back towards the Lord. It means to accept, “I was wrong.” It also is to accept—despite my protestations, despite me thinking that I am in charge of myself, in charge of my actions—that I allowed myself to be taken over by another power. How often do we look back on the sin in our lives and say, “I couldn’t stop myself from doing it”? The passion took control, took possession of me and I could not resist, I became passive to the power of another in my life: however momentarily, I became enslaved again to sin, I gave up my freedom, I turned my back on God.
How then, dear brothers and sisters, do we fight? How do we take control of ourselves so we may be free? It will not come about without effort. And as I will not be able to run a marathon without training, so too I will not be able to take control of myself without effort. I must learn to be generous towards God and my neighbour; not that God or my neighbour needs my generosity but that through giving away, even those things I think I need, I may show myself to truly own them and not be possessed by them.
And then, having learned generosity and continuing to be generous, I must serve—serve God and serve my neighbour—for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the call of the Gospel is the call to repentance, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” And this is not for the sake of God, or for the sake of our neighbour, it is for our own sakes. By being generous and by serving others we may establish ourselves, by the power of God working in us, as truly free, as truly alive, so that whatever we face we do so with God, so that even though we die we die with God that we may rise with him too. Let us then, dear brothers and sisters, use the gifts that we have been given for the building up of his Church,
And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
To our crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all glory, honour and worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit, Amen.
Brethren, grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (in saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
— Ephesians 4:7–13
At that time, when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth he went and dwelt in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
— Matthew 4:12–17