The gospel readings at Mass after the Feast of the Epiphany are connected to that great feast.

The Magi represent the nations, the Gentiles, seeking Jesus as their Savior. In our reading for Monday Jesus after his baptism by John goes into Galilee. Matthew’s gospel calls it “The Galilee of the Gentiles.” Jesus brings light “to a people who sit in darkness.” (Matthew 4,12-17,24-25) In Galilee Jesus fulfills the promise made to the Magi.

He repeats the words John used to define his ministry: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Yet, while John speaks to the Jewish world, (Saturday, John 3,22-3); Jesus calls a Gentile world as well to turn to God, for the kingdom of God at hand.

Humanly speaking, it wasn’t a good time for such a mission. It’s “after John was arrested,” a dangerous time. Galilee, when Jesus began his mission, was ruled by Herod Antipas, who imprisoned John and then beheaded him. (Matthew 4, 12-25)

It probably wasn’t a good time either for the Magi to come to Bethlehem, in the days of Herod the Great. But God’s time is not our time; God’s ways are not our ways. We can miss the opportunities of grace when we think of time in too human a way.

Accounts of the miracle of the loaves and the crossing of the Sea of Galilee from Mark’s gospel are read on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Commentators note that in Mark’s gospel the Sea of Galilee is a stormy path Jesus takes to reach the Gentile world of his day. The other side of the lake, the western side, was predominantly a Gentile area. They are given the same Bread he provides for the children of Israel.

It’s to “all of Galilee” that Jesus goes and consequently “his reputation traveled the length of Syria. They carried to him all those afflicted with various diseases and racked with pain: the possessed, the lunatics, the paralyzed. He cured them all.” (Matthew 4, 23-25)

Jesus brings good news to both Jew and Gentiles in Galilee, the”Galilee of the Gentiles.”