3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Matthew deliberately puts Sunday's Gospel (Mt 4:12-23) at the beginning of his writing. Immediately after Jesus' baptism and temptation, the evangelist has Him embark on His public ministry by "walking along the Sea of Galilee" and calling His first four disciples.
Matthew begins by telling his Jewish-Christian community that the start of Jesus' ministry was as much a cause for rejoicing as was the temporary Assyrian withdrawal from Galilean territory during First-Isaiah's prophetic ministry. "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light," Isaiah had then proclaimed; "upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone" (Is 8:23-9:3). The liberation that Jesus is about to usher in will be every bit as spectacular.
It has been the traditional belief that Jesus called poor fishermen as his first helpers. "Follow me", he said, "and I will make you into fishers of men." The calling of Matthew in today's gospel contradicts this tradition. Tax collectors were very wealthy men in many cases, the very reason why they were so despised. Indeed contemporary scholars have called into question the entire traditional assumption that they were poor people that they were for all practical purposes vagabonds. The biblical scholar, Raymond Browne, has argued a contrary case. He has argued convincingly that, in the area around the Sea of Galilee, fishing was a very lucrative business. The infrastructure of the Roman Empire provided them with healthy markets for their produce. The business was organised around families and clans. Many of these families had grown enormously wealthy in the trade. Browne argues that the fact that the first disciples were fishermen was evidence of their wealth rather than their poverty. Compared with shepherds and herdsmen, for example, fishermen were in a very different economic league indeed.
The biblical evidence we have of the call of the disciples would fit in with Browne's pattern. The scriptures make the point that these men abandoned family businesses. "Leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him." This wasn't a question of throwing the two fish back into the sea and trying out something else. This represented a whole change of lifestyle. And that change is brought about by the forceful conviction of the preacher, Jesus himself. And the skills that were required in their original profession will stand them in good stead in their new way of life: the patience and the hope that characterises every successful fisherman will be required too in their new profession as fishers of men.
The important element stressed by Matthew is the 'change of heart' the 'repent for the Kingdom is at hand'. For the first four Apostles, the change demanded is radical indeed: 'I will make you into fishers of men'. From now on, people, not fish, will be their central concern.