NOTES for Mat 4:12-17
The key word in today's Gospel reading is light. The evangelist tells us that the Lord Jesus' arrival in Galilee became for the inhabitants of that land the appearance of the great light prophesied by Isaiah. The Lord Himself speaks in a similar way in His conversation with Nicodemus, as related to us by the evangelist John. The Lord said that the judgment upon the world consists in the fact that light has come into the world. Naturally, this does not refer to the mysterious radiance of the Godhead that sometimes accompanies the revelation of the Almighty's Glory. Rather, we should recall the words of the psalm: “Your word is a lamp to my feet.” Christ's coming gives us the possibility of seeing and distinguishing good from evil, the way of life from the way of death. In His presence we are able to see the truth about God, about ourselves, and about the world. And while only some among us are deemed worthy to see the light of the Transfiguration, the uncreated radiance of God, the light of truth of which the prophet Isaiah and the evangelist Matthew speak today has been given to everyone since the day the Lord began His ministry.