The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – January 24, 2021

 The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – January 24, 2021 

First Reading: Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Psalm: Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 (4a)

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Gospel Acclamation: Mark 1:15 

Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

Introduction

Psalm 25 is a Psalm of David, and in verses 8 through 9, he reveals one of the salient characteristics of God: Good and upright is the LORD; thus, he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble his way. God loves it when people turn from their own godless plans, humble themselves, seek instruction from Him and start following His plan.

The Catholic Church teaches that we are inherently disordered creatures at birth, due to sin and the Fall. We are disordered in our reasonings, our plans, our preferences, our interests, our desires, our priorities, our passions, and our appetites. We are not totally depraved but rather we are disordered, out of whack. We are meant to be ordered towards God and in harmony with His plans and ways in all that we think, say, do and feel. I like that word, “disordered,” because it suggests the possibility and process of being set right with God, of being reoriented towards Him and His thoughts, to His ways, and His plans for us.

Sunday’s readings show us how to move from being disordered in relation to God to being ordered towards Him.

First Reading

The First Reading is taken from the third chapter of the Book of Jonah. I like it because both Jonah the Israelite prophet and the inhabitants of the powerful, violent and cruel Assyrian imperial capital of Nineveh, the enemies of Israel, are clearly in the same condition. They both have been disordered and disobedient to God. When Jonah received his call from God to go to that city in the east and warn them of their impending doom, he fled in the opposite direction, to the point farthest west he could get to, thinking he could escape God on a ship. He found out that there is no escape from God, and his story has provided us with perhaps the greatest fish story ever told, when God uses a “big fish” to bring him back.

In calling him, God’s plan for Jonah was to work through him one of the greatest evangelistic campaigns of those times by giving the Ninevites an opportunity to turn to God in repentance and escape to their impending judgement.

God finally gets Jonah to Nineveh, and he is only one day into the three-day walk across the city when his message outpaces him throughout the city as the inhabitants spread Jonah’s message. There is a great repentance from the king on down, to the people and even the animals. In sackcloth and ashes, the inhabitants cry out to the God of Israel for mercy.

In this scene, we are given an illustration of the first step on the path to being ordered rightly towards God. We must make Him the priority for a period of examination, to understand where we are in our relationship with Him. We must acknowledge our disorder — that is, our distance from Him, our unbelief, and our resulting disobedience to Him. We need to cry out to Him for His mercy and place ourselves once again in His hands to begin the second step of the process, which we find in the Psalm.

Psalm

The psalmist reveals that the second step after repentance is to humbly submit to learning and heeding the Lord’s truth and ways, depending on Him rather than on ourselves. God, in His mercy and compassion, loves to help us do this.

Second Reading

The Apostle Paul reveals that to continue this path toward being ordered to God, He must remain our highest priority. This world is not our home, it is temporary. We are just passing through it; we are strangers and aliens in it, because heaven is our true home.

Gospel Acclamation

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the Gospel. (Mark 1:15)

Gospel

In the Gospel reading, Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James and John, all fishermen by trade, to come follow Him and become fishers of men, rather than catching fish. He is calling us to do the same. This is the last step in the process of becoming ordered towards God. As we follow Him, we are to help others to come into an ever deeper relationship with God.

Conclusion

From our former state of disorderedness, the process of becoming ordered towards God is a lifelong, repetitive process of repentance, learning and following God in humility as we share the joy of our ever renewing and growing relationship with God and with those around us by thought, word and deed. Today is always a good day to start.

February 7, 2021 • Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

February 7, 2021 • Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7
Psalm: Psalm 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 (3a)
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
Gospel Acclamation: Matthew 8:17
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39

Introduction

Jesus told us, “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33b NABRE). We encounter all kinds of trouble, as today’s readings reveal, but God will go through them with us, and He can handle them better than we can.

First Reading

The first reading is from the Book of Job. When I read it, I thought to myself, “Wow, this sounds like what many of us are experiencing in the midst of the pandemic. Not only do we have this contagious, capricious and potentially deadly disease that we’re dealing with globally, but we also are dealing with all the related issues such as economics, child care, education, isolation, politicization, conflict, job loss, deaths of friends, coworkers and family members. On top of all these things, we are still dealing with all the other more common struggles and troubles of life in this world.

Job can identify with us. He has just suffered tremendous financial and personal losses of property, the deaths of many servants and all ten of his children through marauders and catastrophes — all in one day. Then, on another day, he is afflicted with loathsome sores all over his body. He is left with his wife, who tells him to curse God and die, and his three friends who surround him, as Job is reeling from all these events, to interrogate him and offer him faulty theology, because they are sure that the fault for all these troubles lies with Job himself.

The ultimate source of his troubles, however, is Satan, who has received permission from God to test Job to see if he can get him to turn his back on God. God is pleased with Job and makes it clear that the suffering that has come upon Job is not his fault in any way. So as we read Job’s statements, we need to keep in mind that these are the thoughts of a righteous man trying to process all that has happened to him and how God has been involved in all of it.

Job passes the test, prays for and secures God’s forgiveness for his friends, for their faulty diagnosis and theology. Then God brings restoration, healing and even more blessings than before back into Job’s life.

The reading shows us that thoughts like Job’s are normal as we process suffering with God. God knows us and our struggles, and He is with us in our times of testing. He is on our side, and Jesus knows how we feel because He became one of us and suffered as one of us.

Psalm

This is a psalm of recovery and praise for those who need building up, gathering, healing and binding up of their wounds. Because that is what God does for those who trust in Him and bring their suffering, their offering to Him in worship and praise.

Second Reading

When we are living in a world of hurt, we need people to bring the good news — the gospel — to us. The Apostle Paul been called by God to proclaim the good news. He is under obligation because God has told him to do so. That fact that he does so is not grounds for boasting; it is not about him.

Now, Paul can proclaim the gospel either willingly or under compulsion. If he does it willingly, he receives a reward. If he does it under compulsion, he only fulfills an obligation that has been laid on him by God.

But Paul is doing it willingly. He is even willing to forego his right to receive his living from preaching the gospel so that it can be spread even further, to those unwilling or unable to support him, so that even more people can be won to the good news of Jesus Christ. Why would he do this? So that he can share even more in the blessings of seeing the results of the gospel in people’s lives. That is his reward. And in supporting himself through tent-making, he also has the freedom to become all things to all people, meeting them where they are at.

We might consider Paul the patron saint of those laity who are willingly involved in spreading the gospel.

Gospel Acclamation

Christ took away our infirmities and bore our diseases. (Matthew 8:17)

Gospel

We find Jesus, in today’s Gospel reading, continuing to proclaim the good news, healing the sick and freeing those possessed by demons. He does all this by spending time with His Father in prayer in the midst of this world of hurt.

Conclusion

If we are struggling trying to find and understand God in the midst of deep suffering, we are normal. He is there with us, waiting, wanting and moving to help us. We can bring our suffering to Him as an offering in union with the offering of Jesus and praise Him in the midst of it. And as we are being healed, we can share freely with those around us what we are learning about God and life, that we may share in the blessings of the gospel.