Next Sunday is the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year A. You can read a complete commentary on the Sunday Gospel here.

¹² When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³ He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: ¹⁵ “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, ¹⁶ the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.” Continue reading →

Fishing – Clearly Jesus is calling the disciples to a life with him.  But every “calling to” is by default a “calling from” in some sense. Fishing was not as easy as getting a boat and having at it. Fishing was controlled by the “powers that be” in two ways. (1) Commercial fishermen worked for the royal family or wealthy landlords who contracted with them to provide a specific amount of fish at a certain time. They were paid either with cash or with fish. (2) Fishermen leased their fishing rights from persons called “toll collectors” in the NT for a percentage of the catch. The “tax” could be as much as 40% (see Malina & Rohrbach, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, p. 44). Continue reading →