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• In the first reading, Isaiah preaches to people who are discouraged by war and oppression.
• Among the first regions taken in the war were three sections of the northern Kingdom.
• The prophet promises that God will again restore the land.

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• In today’s second reading Paul gives his reaction to the divisions among the Corinthians.
• The factions in the Corinthian church were dividing Christ’s Body.
• Paul insists that through Baptism all become members of one body, the Body of Christ.

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• Because a majority of Matthew’s audience seems to have been Jewish Christians, the passage from Isaiah is used in today’s Gospel to explain the fact that Jesus’ ministry began in Galilee, not Jerusalem.
• The substance of Jesus’ preaching is summarized, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
• Jesus’ preaching calls for a radical change, the old way of living must be abandoned and a new way embraced.