III Sunday of Ordinary Time

January 24, 2021

Sunday of the Word of God

The Lord addressed Jonah: “Get going.”

We say to him, “Lord, show me your ways, instruct me in your ways.”

Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

 

Readings

First Reading

Reading Jonah’s Prophecy 3, 1-5. 10

The Lord addressed Jonah:
“Get going and go to the great city of Nineveh; there you will announce to them the message that I will communicate to you.”
Jonah set off for Nineveh, following the Lord’s command. Nineveh was an immense city; it took three days to get around. Jonah began touring the city on the first day, proclaiming, “In forty days, Nineveh will be razed.”
The Ninivites believed in God, proclaimed a fast, and dressed with rude sayal, from the most important to the youngest.
God saw their behavior, how they had abandoned the wrong way, and repented of the misfortune he had determined to send them. So he didn’t execute it.

Psalm

Come out 24, 4-5ab. 6-7bc. 8-9

Sir, show me your ways.

Lord, show me your ways, instruct me in your ways:
make him walk with loyalty; teach me, because you are my God and Savior. R/.

Remember, Lord, that your tenderness and mercy are eternal;
remember me with mercy, for your goodness, Lord. R/.

The Lord is good and righteous, and teaches the way to sinners;
he makes the humble walk righteously, he teaches his way to the humble. R/.

Second Reading

Reading St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 7, 29-31

I say this, brethren, the moment is pressing.
It remains a solution for those who have women to live as if they do not have it; those who cry, as if they did not cry; those who are joyful, as if they were not happy; those who buy, as if they did not possess; those who negotiate in the world, as if they do not enjoy it: because the representation of this world is over.

Gospel

Reading the Holy Gospel according to Mark 1, 14-20

After John was delivered, Jesus went to Galilee to proclaim the gospel of God; He said, “Time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Become and believe in the gospel.”
Passing by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting nets into the sea, as they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left the nets and followed him. A little further on he saw James, Zebedee’s, and his brother John, who were on the boat going over the nets. He then called them, left his father Zebedee on the boat with the day laborers, and left after him.

 

Comment

Pope Francis has instituted this third Sunday of Ordinary Time as the Sunday of God’s Word for the entire universal Church. The Holy Father said in September 2019: “Specifically dedicating a Sunday of the Liturgical Year to the Word of God allows us, above all, to make the Church relive the gesture of the Risen One who also opens for us the treasure of her Word so that we can proclaim for the whole world this inexhaustible wealth. Today it has become common practice to live moments when the Christian community focuses on the great value that the Word of God occupies in its daily existence. In the different local Churches there are a lot of initiatives that make Sacred Scripture ever more accessible to believers, so that they feel grateful for such a great gift, with the commitment to live it every day and the responsibility to bear witness to it consistently. It is good that this decisive relationship with the living Word is never lacking in the life of our people that the Lord never tires of directing his Wife, so that he may grow in love and in the witness of faith. I therefore establish that the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time is dedicated to the celebration, reflection and dissemination of the Word of God.”

From this virtual pulpit, which we have called today’s Word, we intend to put our grain of sand to fulfill this desire of the Pope: that the Word of God come to us every Sunday, and also in other solemnities, such as the food of the spirit of which we cannot do without, as fresh air that oxygenates us, as clean water that gives us life, as a living force that revitalizes us , like fire that purifies us and aquilata, as a seed that fertilizes us, as a sharp sword that penetrates and discerns, as light that dissolves darkness and darkness. Today’s word offers us the readings of the liturgy of the day, a commentary and a prayer, with the intention of preparing us for the celebration of the Eucharist from a previous moment of reflection, meditation and prayer. We must never forget that Christ is the Word of the Father, with whom we meet in Sacred Scripture. Today’s word is intended to be an aid to personal encounter with Christ, without which any other word is vain and empty. How important it is that we read, ponder, and pray with Sacred Scripture personally, as a family, or as a community. St Jerome said that ignoring Sacred Scripture is ignoring Christ. To accept the Word is to welcome Christ. May He continue to help us grow in love and testimony from His Word. Let us thank the Lord for the gift of His Word, and let us be committed to living it and the responsibility to bear witness to it from the coherence of each one in his own life.

Today’s Word introduces us to God by addressing his word to Jonah. Jonah can be each of us. Like Jonah, God calls us to set out on our way to the great city, which represents society and the world in which we live. We know from Jonah’s full story that it was not easy for him to obey God, who refused his invitation and fled his presence. Called to be God’s messenger, he first needed to convert himself and then announce the message of conversion. In this way his testimony began from his life experience before God and his power of conviction was supported. We too must witness what God has done in us. In the midst of a world that is increasingly indifferent and oblivious to transcendent realities, we must preach mainly by example, without fear of manifesting the greatnesses that the Lord has worked in us since the recognition of our own miseries. And the Lord will take care of the rest.

Psalm 24 is a precious and simple prayer that invites us to be humble and to trust in the Lord. No one better than Him knows our history and the future. Asking him to teach us his ways means being aware of our poverty and limitation.

St Paul invites the Corinthians not to be trapped by the present moment and by the realities that surround us. Without giving up living life naturally, as a gift from God, we must project our gaze beyond what is seen and touched. We are citizens of heaven, called to eternal life. The precariousness and provisionality of this world will end and give rise one day to the definitive and eternal, to God’s time.

In the Gospel we find Jesus beginning his ministry in the Galilee of the Gentiles, of the less religious, of the most rebellious, proclaiming the closeness of the Kingdom of God, with the call to conversion and the invitation to believe in the Gospel. In Himself we find the meaning of God’s reign that he proclaims to us: God Himself who approaches us and shakes hands for us to approach Him and live in peace and freedom. Their acceptance requires continuous conversion and change of mindset, which affects our behaviors and all aspects of our personal and community life. Believing the gospel means accepting the Good News, that is, that God loves us and therefore forgives us, that He wants to make us his children.

For this mission Jesus wanted to count on us from the beginning and that is why he called some to continue to leave everything to him. It draws attention to how Jesus is the one who takes the initiative. He is the one who chooses, who calls each one by name and invites them to follow in their footsteps with the promise of making them “fishers of men”, that is, in witnesses, in missionaries sent to work for God, to heal broken hearts and to conquer them for the Lord, to sow the seed of the Kingdom, to proclaim the love of God made flesh in Christ , from the experience of being healed, healed, revitalized by Him. This call is addressed by Jesus to all of us who want to be his disciples and have been fascinated by his person and his message. It is not only for consecrated persons and consecrated women in priestly and religious life. We have all been called by Him to be His witnesses.

The disciples’ response was blunt. They left everything immediately and marched after Him, behind his tracks. Indeed, before Jesus we cannot be anchored with half inks or stay halfway through. Jesus gives us everything and also asks us for everything. And that’s it. This way of understanding life clashes, of course, with the current mentality of bias, of provisionality, of fear of definitive commitments, of fear of wrong, of selfishness hidden in a kind of calculated prudence, of panic to burning ships and launching itself into the conquest of new horizons. Leaving everything means losing everything to win it all. St Paul said that all had been esteemed for garbage and loss compared to Christ. Many disciples of Jesus have lived this way throughout the history of the Church to the last consequences, on so many occasions until martyrdom. men and women of all times and places, also today. Following Christ, however, full-time, with who we are and have is worth it. If others did, how can we not be able to do it ourselves in our time. To this end Christ Himself will give us his grace and the strength of his Spirit.

 

Prayer

Sir, show me your ways.

Jesus, again today I feel the power and strength of your call.

Your call is a gesture of trust and friendship. You want to count on me.

You call me out of myself, to set out on my way, like Jonah, to the great city, on a mission, in a tormented and scrambled world, which needs witnesses of light.

Sir, show me your ways.

Your call is called to conversion: you invite me to abandon my life of sin, comfort, selfishness, self-plans, superfluous luxuries, hidden idolatry.

The moment is pressing, time has come, it is the time of the Kingdom.

Convert me to you, Lord, and give me the faith to believe in your Good News.

Sir, show me your ways.

Your call is called to follow-up: to go after you, behind your footprints, without looking back, leaving everything, especially myself.

To follow you, Lord, means to be willing to carry the Cross, to lose your life, to forget people and places, to walk without owning destiny, trusting only in your Word.

Sir, show me your ways.

You say to me: Leave your boat and your nets and come with me out to sea. I will make you fisherman of the men and women of your environment, witness of the Gospel, light of nations, father and mother of many, seed of the Kingdom.

And I say unto you, Here I am, convert me, call me, send me.

Sir, show me your ways.