Red Hats

Seeing how Jesus works at the margins and extremities

01/07/2019

Matthew 4:12-17, 23 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.

We all would agree that knowing the right people and being in the right places are crucial for worldly success. An old cliché teaches: “He was in the right place at the right time,” when something fortuitous happened. For example, if you want to make a lot of money in business you go to the financial capital of the world, New York City. If you want to be a movie star, you should move to Hollywood, or maybe Ballywood in India. Or, if you want to be a big country music singer, you hang out in Nashville. If you want to be the coolest person in the world, you attend Mass at I.C. in Fort Smith. Meeting the right people and being in the right place will help launch your career.

But when it comes to spiritual success, almost the opposite holds true: you must meet the wrong people in the wrong places. Ever since Pope Francis ascended to the papacy, he has descended to places and people most of us would rather avoid. He goes to prisons and washes the feet of convicts on Good Friday. His travels take him to third world countries far more frequently than to first world countries. The pope also leaves his impact by creating cardinals. But have you noticed where he has placed new “red hats” (that’s the catchy way Catholics refer to a cardinal)? In five years, the pope has created 75 new cardinals from 50 different countries, 15 of which never had a red hat before, and the first Scandinavian since 1500. The pope is laser focused on spiritual success, and as a result, he ends up missing the right people in the right places.

In the gospel today we see the pope is only walking in the footsteps of Jesus during his own public ministry. When John the Baptist is imprisoned, Jesus begins his ministry not by going to Jerusalem, the spiritual capital of the Jewish world, but to Galilee. Isaiah had prophesied this about Galilee: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light.” You may recall that Zebulun and Naphtali were two of the twelve tribes of Israel. But ever since the Assyrian invasion and conquest of the northern kingdom in the 700’s BC, they had lost a lot of their Jewish faith because of intermarriage with the Gentiles. Hence they were called disparagingly “Galilee of the Gentiles,” a euphemism for half-breeds. In other words, that would be the last place to start your ministry as the Messiah of the Jewish people. And where does Jesus find his first apostles? They are fishermen along the Sea of Galilee, which would be a lot like finding cardinals from third world countries. The recipe for spiritual success is often the opposite from that of worldly success, and that is something both Jesus and Pope Francis understood deep in their bones.

This insight about the counter-intuitive nature of spiritual success may shed some light on our own Christian journey, as it shed light on the darkness of Zebulun and Naphtali. It is very normal and natural to feel disappointment and discouragement at personal failures: a divorce, a lost job, a failed exam, a death in the family, illness like cancer, growing old and facing personal limitations of body and mind. We feel like that old proverb, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” But what feels like material disaster can often be the perfect point for spiritual success. You find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time but that is exactly the right place and time for God’s grace to go to work. I have been blessed to witness how a person’s faith life suddenly becomes more fervent when facing a calamity. After the tragedy of 9/11 churches and synagogues were packed with people, in their knees in prayer, and they were not just going through the motions. Both Jesus and Pope Francis teach us that God usually works at the margins of society and in the extremities of our lives. Evangelical Protestants like to say: “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.”

At those margins and extremities we may experience worldly failures, but that’s also where we find great spiritual success. That’s also where we might find a red hat or two.

Praised be Jesus Christ!