FrNikola

1st Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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In today’s Gospel we see the first moments of Our Lord’s earthly ministry continuing to take shape. After an impressive demonstration of authority and power in the synagogue, he comes to Simon Peter’s house and heals his mother-in-law. Soon people are coming from all over the village, bringing the sick and those afflicted by demons so that Our Lord can heal them and liberate them from evil. Despite this success, he knows he can’t just stay in one village, but bring his teaching and power everywhere.

Good News spreads fast. Today we live in a society where the Good News has been spread far and wide, yet people don’t come to Our Lord for healing and liberation from the evil afflicting their lives. Why? We have a duty to spread the Good News, but that’s not just quoting the bible chapter and verse, but by giving testimony to the impact Our Lord has had on our own lives. Those crowds in the Gospel today would not have heard anything if Our Lord had not taught, healed, or exorcised someone they new. Our Lord does call to those people who haven’t experienced him yet, but, like Samuel in today’s First Reading, they need help to recognize who is speaking to him and to respond.

Take a moment today to take stock of what a positive impact Our Lord has made on you and your family, and don’t be afraid to share the Good News far and wide.

Readings: 1 Samuel 3:1–10, 19–20; Psalm 40:2, 5, 7–10; Mark 1:29–39. See also 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

1st Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel the crowds see something different in this young rabbi from Nazareth just starting his teaching. Why do his words have a weight to them that they didn’t find in their scribes? They bear the weight of truth. Something resonates in us when we hear the truth, and for the crowds in today’s Gospel they know Our Lord’s teaching rings true: it speaks to something in their hearts, be it a call to conversion or a confirmation of the upright life they’re trying to lead. We need the truth, and Our Lord is the truth in Person.

Society today focuses a lot on opinion, but often doesn’t go very deep. In today’s First Reading the priest Eli misjudges Hannah pouring our her heart to the Lord for drunkenness, and judges her accordingly. Eli soon found he was wrong, but if he hadn’t spoken up he would have never found out or joined his prayers to Hannah’s. Today many people don’t want to speak out at all for fear of being labelled as judgmental, but also, at times, out of a mistaken idea that two apparently irreconcilable beliefs can be true: everyone’s got their “truth” and nobody should question it. This attitude loses sight of the fact that there is a truth to everything, and we’re all seeking to understand it and embrace it in our lives. The Gospel brought to us by Our Lord brings that truth to us. It helps us cut through opinions that may veil untruths.

The Gospel today has been preached for millennia, but it’s the truth that sets us free. Let’s listen to Our Lord with renewed attention today through his Word, confident that it is the truth, and not be shy about helping others learn the truth as well.

Readings: 1 Samuel 1:9–20; 1 Samuel 2:1, 4–8d; Mark 1:21–28. See also 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

1st Week in Ordinary Time, Monday

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In today’s Gospel we see that just as Our Lord continues to preach the message he entrusted to John the Baptist, so he begins to call the apostles who would learn it and transmit it to future generations. The readings remind today today that we all have a calling, and if we follow it we can achieve true fulfillment in life by working with Our Lord to help others receive the Gospel and be saved. Hannah in the First Reading is sad because she feels her calling to motherhood, but seems unable to achieve it. She loves her husband, but she knows a call to marriage is also a call to motherhood. Mothers are the first teachers of faith and love to their children.

When we sense a calling it strikes a chord in us, but as a vocation, not just for priests and consecrated persons, but for everyone, we know it not only appeals to our likes, but challenges us as well. If we feel challenged it is a sign that it comes from beyond us even though it seems it might suit us if we embrace it. John the Baptist knew prophets were also destined for martyrdom, but he didn’t shy away from his calling. Our Lord invites us to follow him in some way, and we are free to decline, but we’ll always see it as a missed opportunity if we do. Our Lord works with us to plan our lives and we should always be open to his input.

Ask Our Lord today to help you see the life you should lead. You won’t regret it.

Readings: 1 Samuel 1:1–8; Psalm 116:12–19; Mark 1:14–20.

The Baptism of the Lord, Cycle C (1st Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Today we celebrate the end of the Christmas season, and that may make you ask yourself why we would celebrate it, especially when Christmas “ended” two weeks ago. In today’s readings God himself celebrates what is taking place in the Gospel: the Baptism of his Son in the river Jordan by St. John the Baptist. In today’s First Reading God speaks of Jesus as his servant who is about to begin something wonderful: his public life. He’s going to bring justice to the world, be a light for the nations, open the eyes of the blind, and free prisoners, and God is keeping his promise through Jesus’ mission on earth. In short, God is sending out the Savior today to get to work. During Christmas we celebrated the birth of the Savior. On today’s feast, the Baptism of the Lord, we’re celebrating him finishing his silent years in Nazareth and going out to preach salvation to the world.

In today’s Second Reading Peter rejoices that salvation is not just for the people of Israel, but for everyone who respects God and acts uprightly. When Jesus is baptized in the Jordan he institutes a new kind of baptism. John talks about that baptism in the Gospel today as different from his: it is a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Peter in the Second Reading is speaking to Cornelius, who was the first non-Jew to be baptized in Church history. The Jews thought originally that the Savior would only come for the Jews, but then the Holy Spirit revealed to Peter and the Church through Cornelius’ situation that the Savior was coming for every nation that “fears God” (respects God) and “acts uprightly” (acts in a good way).

The Holy Spirit always works gradually. Cornelius had heard about Jesus and his promise of salvation, and had been praying for a sign. Peter was praying too, and they didn’t know each other at all. An angel came to Cornelius and told him to send men to find and bring Peter. Cornelius was a Roman centurion, and since he wasn’t a Jew, Peter wouldn’t have visited him unless the Holy Spirit had said it was okay in a dream, because Jews didn’t enter the homes of non-Jews. As Peter rejoices that the Savior has come for everyone, he recalls Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan as the beginning of doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil. So we celebrate today with God, with Peter, with Cornelius, and with everyone who has become Christian since. We celebrate that Jesus began to go out and do good, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and free those who are imprisoned by sin.

As we begin a new year, and the Christmas season concludes, Jesus’ private and public life show us it is time for us to get to work as well. In the Christmas season we’ve spent more time at home, resting, being with family and friends, receiving so many gifts, and getting ready to live the New Year better. It’s not a time for gloom and doom as we return to work, to school, to the daily grind: it’s time to show Our Lord we appreciate all he’s given us over the last year, and all he’s given us during the Christmas season. It’s time for us to get to work and get the word out about salvation. Cornelius heard about salvation from someone, long before he met St. Peter, and there are lots of Cornelius’ out there who are looking for what our faith has to offer. They are hungry for God.

Let’s thank Our Lord for the Christmas Season and the New Year that has just begun, keep moving forward on those New Year’s resolutions as a way to show gratitude to Our Lord for all the blessings he has poured out on us, pray for those who are suffering from hunger and war, and pray for all those Cornelius’ out there to find and love God, to do good, and to find salvation.

Readings: Isaiah 42:1–4, 6–7; Psalm 104:1b–4, 24–25, 27–30; Acts 10:34–38; Luke 3:15–16, 21–22.

Christmas, January 7th

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Note: These readings are used when Epiphany is observed on a Sunday January 7th or 8th.

Today’s Gospel presents the perfect turning point from the Christmas season to Ordinary Time, which begins soon with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. John today knows his mission is almost finished, and it has been successful. He has worked and sacrificed for this moment, the moment when the “Lamb of God,” to use John the Evangelist’s expression, would come and take away the sins of the world. John’s disciples don’t understand; they see Jesus’ gain as John’s loss, as competition, but for John it is a moment of joy, just as the best man is glad to see his friend getting married to a wonderful bride.

In a world that prides itself on self-advancement and self-fulfillment John reminds us that in making others succeed and shine we are fulfilling a greater purpose and will be more blessed as a result. John is content because Jesus is starting to shine. John will still have his moment of darkness in prison, but ultimately the light of Christ will shine when he needs it as well, just before his martyrdom.

At the conclusion of the Christmas season we’re reminded that John and Jesus dedicated themselves to others. Let’s ask the Lord to show us today how we can help others to succeed and to shine as well. It’s the greatest path to fulfillment. Let’s not be afraid about decreasing so that someone we love may increase.

Readings: 1 John 5:14–21; Psalm 149:1–5, 6a, 9b; John 3:22–30.