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- Feb 26, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 27, 2024
January 22 - January 27, 2024
St Vincent, deacon and martyr
2 Samuel 5:1-7, 10 This is a key reading for two reasons. David is “elected” as king and secondly he make Jerusalem his capital.
Mark 3:22-30 It can still shock that some of Jesus contemporaries proposed he was doing the work of the evil one. The thinking may have been like this: he is doing powerful deeds, but we do not believe he comes from God. Therefore…!
2 Samuel 6:12-15, 17-19 The ark represented the presence of God on the move with the people. The settling down, so to speak, of God’s presence in Jerusalem, even without a temple, was indeed a momentous choice.
Mark 3:31-35 Our reading can feel a little unsettling because it sounds like Jesus is dismissing his family, including his mother. However, it is really an affirmation of the essence of discipleship.
St Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor
2 Samuel 7:4-17 Today we read from one of a few absolutely central texts from the Old Testament. Earlier in the chapter, David made a proposal to build God a house. Through Nathan, God refuses David for the substantial reasons given. Nevertheless, a tremendous promise is made to David and his “house”, a mark of God’s love and faithfulness through time.
Mark 4:1-20 This long reading can be tricky. The original parable is given first, a parable from the lips of Jesus. The later explanation of the parable comes from church tradition, a kind of allegorical reading. The allegory narrows the original meaning of the parable. In between, the question of the disciples is difficult. It seems to be answering a later issue: how was that that most of Jesus’ fellow Jews did not recognise him as the Messiah?
Conversion of St Paul
Acts 22:3-16 The conversion of St Paul had huge consequences for early Christianity. He was a man of terrific energy and physical courage, inspired by a deep desire to do God’s will. His encounter with Jesus placed his great gifts of intellect and spirit at the service of the Christian movement, to its lasting enrichment up to today. He himself tells of his conversion in his own words in Galatians 1.
Mark 16:15-18 Note: this passage comes from one of proposed endings to Mark, none of which comes from the head of the evangelist.
Our reading today is chosen for the very first words which capture something of the ministry of Paul, who went out to the whole known world of his time, that is, the Roman Empire around the eastern Mediterranean.
Sts Timothy and Titus
2 Timothy 1:1-8 The tone of encouragement is always needed and today, more than ever, we need the reminder to fan into a flame the gift of God.
Mark 4:26-34 A further few seed parables illuminate the Gospel. The parable of the farmer asleep is especially encouraging: just let things grow. Cf. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. (1Corinthians 3:6)
St Angela Merici, virgin.
2 Samuel 12:1-7, 10-17 Because of David’s adultery with the wife of Uriah and his subsequent murder, the prophet Nathan is sent by God to accuse David of his sins. The prophet begins by tricking the king into righteous anger and then very cleverly catching him out. The electric words are “You are the man.” David wasn’t the first or last person in the world to have been a hypocrite or to have acted inconsistently.
Mark 4:35-41 Already at the hands of Mark, the calming of the storm is to be read symbolically. The later church, under tremendous pressure during the Jewish War, questions the presence and even the concern of Jesus. The final question is one we need to ask again and again.
References
-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2024j, January 21). Third Sunday in ordinary time. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012124.cfm
-unday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings/
