4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus trademark saying: "Amen, amen I say unto you" or "Truly I tell you" is used throughout all of the gospels. Instead of appealing to the Torah or the teaching of other rabbis of the time, such a Gamaliel, Jesus speaks on his own authority. How dare he! Jesus is the son of a tekton (Gk: builder) from Nazareth and he not only preaches in his home village but throughout the Holy Land and in Jerusalem. He stands up in the synagogue and speaks without fear of disapproval. If this was all people could dismiss him as an egotist or as delusional or even possessed. We know at a certain point his family came to collect him since they were so concerned at his behaviour (Mk 3: 31-32). This is not the whole story. Jesus, again on his own authority, commands demons to depart: "Be silent, and come out of him!" (Mk 1: 25) and they immediately exorcised. No wonder the people were amazed: "He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." (Mk 1: 27) The Pharisees and scribes are outraged and the Jewish authorities feel threatened. He not only speaks but what he says happens. We as believers need to trust in that power even as we struggle in a world contemptuous and disbelieving of the Lord. His power is the same today as it was that sabbath in Capernaum. We need to trust in Jesus' promises and invite his power into our own lives knowing that his authority is greater than any evil we might encounter.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today we hear of the call of the first disciples who in due course are named as Apostles. Jesus, like John the Baptist, preaches that the time if fulfilled with the imminent coming of God's Kingdom as well as the need for repentance. He goes further to exhort the people "... believe in the good news." (Mk 1: 15) Jesus not only proclaims a message but it is he who is himself the Good News in person. He fulfills what he speaks. His call to the disciples is one that requires an immediate response. "Immediately they left their nets..." (Mk 1: 18) and "they left their father Zebedee" (Mk 1: 20) Jesus is a man of action and he asks that of others. As we begin 2021, especially those of us returning to employment, we can ask ourselves: "where we are putting our energies?" Are we procrastinating or still focused on the nets? Do we feel the urgency of Christ and his call to follow Him?

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Despite the fact that Sunday readings in Ordinary Time are not thematically linked, in terms of the Second Reading being organized sequentially independent of the other two, I discern an important pastoral and theological point in the combination of all the readings for today. The First Reading speaks of the discernment of God's call while the Gospel tells us of conversion and discipleship. The Second Reading helps us to understand the implications of these stages in the Christian life. Just as the Incarnation brings about the sanctification of the whole of the human person so our conversion and discipleship transforms the whole of our lives including our sexual behaviour: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Cor 6: 19)  In this we realize that the struggle with our disordered appetites, arising from concupiscence, is an ongoing battle. We must never surrender to sexual or other forms of immorality but ever strive to bring the whose of our lives under the loving rule of our heavenly Master whose teachings are articulated for us by the Church. The key to victory is not through self-denial or scrupulosity but through gratitude: "For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body." (1 Cor 6: 20) 

Baptism of the Lord

I think it is important when thinking of the baptism of the Lord that we get things in the correct order. It is not the waters of the Jordan/baptism that make Jesus holy rather it is he, as the Incarnation, who makes the water holy and is thus the pioneer of Christian baptism. Just as the Ark was carried through the Jordan, with its bearers remaining dry shod, taking the Hebrew people into the Promised Land so too does the Messiah lead a renewed and dedicated people into a new future. This new future is one where death has lost its sting. The threat of annihilation is removed since the Lord, fully human and fully divine, leads his flock as subjects of a new and everlasting kingdom. By entering our reality as one of us Jesus makes our everyday existence redolent with sacramental significance if it is lived and offered to the heavenly Father in gratitude and joy as we acknowledge our adoption into the perfect relationship that forever unites the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit: "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received  a spirit of adoption. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ - , if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we might be glorified with him." (Rm 8: 15-17)