| |
 |
| |
Homilies are posted no later than during the week
prior to the Sunday they are needed |
| |
3 Ordinary Time
|
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B - Mark 1:14-20
The penitent asked, "Does God accept repentance?"
The priest asked in turn, "Do you throw away dirty laundry?" "No,"
replied the sinner. The priest said, "Neither will God throw you away."
Anthony de Mello writes, "Jesus proclaimed the good
news, yet he was rejected. Not because it was good, but because it was
new. We don't want new things when they involve change and most
particularly if they cause us to say, 'I was wrong.'" We are told the
only person who welcomes change is a wet baby.
A Scot poet wrote a description of himself with
which we can identify. "My life reminded me of a ruined temple. What
strength, what proportion in some parts! What unsightly gaps,
what prostrate ruins in others!"
"Repent and believe the good news" are the
first words
that Jesus the Christ spoke in the Gospel of Mark. So one
must conclude that this brief message must be of paramount
importance to Him. They are but six words and yet they continue to turn
the world upside down. And they send us into denial.
I lean here on William Barclay's research.
The first word of Christ's message is that
frightening word "repent." The sinner, according to Avery Dulles, has
only two options - to be pardoned or to be punished. The Nazarene
defines repentance as not merely saying, "I'm sorry" but also I will
change my life." While God forgets the sin, He does not forget the
repentant sinner. When God forgives us in the confessional, He suffers
from total amnesia. Heaven, we are advised, is filled with converted
sinners and the good news is there is room for billions more. But we
must repent.
Christ would remind us, "No matter what your past
may resemble, your future is spotless. And the saints are saints
precisely because they kept on trying."
Modern culture dismisses sin. But the Nazarene does
not buy into that message. A New Testament concordance contains a dozen
columns on the subject of sin and only eight on love. God would remind
us that He gave Moses on Mount Sinai Ten Commandments and not Ten
Suggestions. He never said, "Keep my commandments unless of course you
have a headache."
The second term of interest in the six word
message is the good news. The news is good precisely because it brings
us to the truth. Until the advent of the Teacher, people could
only search for God. No less a person than the mighty Job in 23:3
shouted out in pain, "Oh, that today I might find him, that I might
come to his judgment seat!" But the Nazarene says to today's Jobs, "He
who sees me sees the Father."
The good news brings hope. The ancients
dwelled in a
culture of gloom. The Roman philosopher Seneca (3 BC-65 AD) spoke of
"our helplessness in necessary things." Try as they might, people
somehow could never get out of square one. They constantly found
themselves behind the infamous eight ball. Their feet were forever tied
together. Christ's arrival changes that scene. St Paul in Colossians
1:23 tells his readers that they must not be "shaken from the hope you
gained when you heard the Gospel." Perhaps Paul's message inspired
Emily Dickinson to opine that hope is the feather in the soul of each
of us. The future, says Teilhard, is in the hands of those who can give
people valid reasons to live and hope."
The good news offers everyone peace. Virtue
and evil are constantly fighting for the upper hand in each of us.
Morally we are split personalities, moral schizophrenics. St Paul
identifies with our human condition in the famous words, "The good I
would do that I do not. The evil I would not do that I do." This is
what the Scot poet was speaking of. Yet, if we surrender ourselves to
the Christ, those Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde personalities in us can at last
become one worthwhile entity.
St Paul advises (Ephesians 6): "Let the
shoes on your feet be the good news of peace." If we take his
recommendation, our feet will become unbound. We need not fear where
they will take us. We will walk over pebbles and feel no pain.
Abraham Lincoln was asked what he thought of a
sermon. He replied it was good but had one defect. The preacher didn't
ask us to be great. One cannot say that of Jesus in today's Gospel.
We ask the mystic, "How does one get to heaven?" She
answers, "The same way you get to Carnegie Hall. Practice! Practice!
Practice!"
Go for the golden apple. The aphorism is correct.
While it's risky to go out on a limb, that's where the apple
is.
|
|
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
3 Ordinary Time
|
The Conversion of St. Paul–His and Ours
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.
Usually this feast would not be celebrated when it occurs on a Sunday,
but we celebrate it here in our Diocese, the Diocese of St. Petersburg,
as it will be celebrated in many other archdioceses and dioceses
throughout the world because our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI,
declared a Jubilee Year of St. Paul from June 29, 2008 to June 29,
2009, celebrating the 2,000 years since his birth.
We
all know the scene of St. Paul’s conversion. There is the road to
Damascus as Saul of Tarsus led a group of fervent Pharisees to go and
cleanse that city of its followers of Christ. We have seen the
paintings of the bright light with Christ in the middle, of the horse
throwing Saul, and of his companions falling in fear. Actually,
there is no horse in the scripture, Saul probably couldn’t afford one,
but that is beside the point. The point is that Jesus appears to Saul
and asks him, “Why are you persecuting me?” Not persecuting
the Christians, but me. Jesus identifies with His Church, with
us. Saul, as you know, is blinded. Fitting. He had
been blind to God’s presence among the Christians. It would take
one of these Christians Ananais, to help Saul receive his sight and
recognize God in the Messiah.
Although this feast celebrates that event, Paul’s conversion did
not end on that road. It began on the road. He would go on
to suffer for the faith. In Second Corinthians Paul states that
five times he received forty lashes less one, three times he was beaten
with rods, once he was stoned, three times he was shipwrecked along
with all sorts of other persecutions. Far more difficult than these
persecutions was “the thorn in the flesh” he speaks of in 2 Corinthians
12. What was this, exactly. Was the thorn his temper? He often
lost his temper, even with Peter in Jerusalem. Was it some
sort of temptation to sin? Was it physical ailments? We
don’t know. But we do know that Paul realized his complete
dependence on Jesus, whose “power was made perfect in my weakness, (2
Corinthians 12:19.) One thing is for sure, Paul’s conversion
began on the road to Damascus, but was not completed until his final
moments before his execution in Rome.
Nor
is ours.
We
may be cradle Catholics or we may have come into the faith through the
RCIA. We may have always been united to God, or we may have
strayed away and then come back. Our decision to embrace our baptism,
perhaps to return to the Lord, is certainly a conversion, but it is
only the beginning of the conversion. Through the Grace of God,
our entire lives are consecutive moments of conversion, deepening
conversions. Our entire liturgical year leads us to deepen our
union with the Lord. Advent and Lent help us look at our lives
and call upon the Lord to pick us up after we fall. Christmas,
Easter and Pentecost, call us to a deeper commitment to the Presence of
God as one of us, to the Grace of our Baptism, to the work of the
Spirit.
Can
we do it? Can each of us be the person that God created us to
be? Alone, no. We cannot. But we are not alone. St.
Paul tells us in what is perhaps the most assuring sentence for all of
us who join him in the process of conversion: “I can do all things in
Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13. |
|
http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
3 Ordinary Time
|
Repent
and Believe
(January 25, 2009)
Bottom line: Becoming a disciple requires more than a one-time
conversion experience. Because people can grow cold, we need to hear
again Jesus' words: Repent and believe.
Once at an Archdiocesan gathering, a speaker asked all those educated
in Catholic schools to stand. As you might imagine, the majority stood.
Nothing against public schools and C.C.D. (I went to public schools for
my first twelve years) - and of course we can only feel gratitude for
the gifts that adult converts bring. At the same time, most of our lay
leaders have emerged from Catholic schools.
There is a reason for this. As we see in today's Gospel, becoming a
disciple requires more than a one-time conversion experience. After
calling people to conversion, Jesus invited them to follow him, to walk
with him. That involved conversation, working together, relaxing
together and, above all, praying together. A Catholic school is a place
where those things can happen. Along with their teachers and other
adults, the students have common experiences of study, projects, field
trips, recreation and prayer - as well as abundant opportunities for
mutual forgiveness and forbearance. All of this can contribute to
becoming a Christian disciple.
Now, becoming a disciple does not happen automatically. Not only does
each student have their own free will, but a group of people can lose
their vision, grow cold and wind up conforming, imitating the dominant
culture. That's why we need to hear Jesus' words: Repent and believe.
Repent means to examine one's life: Where have I strayed from Christ,
become disordered? Believe means to stop simply repeating words and
phrases - and to think about what those words mean. For example, in the
Profession of Faith, we say: I believe in God, the Father almighty.
What does it mean that God is my Father - and that he is all powerful?
A disciple doesn't just repeat those words. He thinks about what they
signify.
This is important because otherwise we have a tendency to fall into the
values and beliefs of the culture. Let me use an example from this past
week. We just inaugurated a new president. For sure all of us are
praying for President Obama. I don't know about you but I am praying
that he has the right solutions for our economic problems, that his
administration will improve our overall health care system - and above
all, find new ways for nations to solve conflicts peacefully. Those are
important things and they will effect every one of us, especially our
children. But, at the same time, I hope that nobody here thinks that
the economy, health care and world peace are the most important things.
Compared to the salvation of a single soul, they are small potatoes.*
Someday the United States will be gone - and all the other countries
too. But you and I will just be starting our existence.
That is why St. Paul says that those who are weeping should act as not
weeping - and those who are rejoicing should act as not rejoicing. "For
the world in its present form is passing away." What matters is where
you and I will spend eternity. The decision one makes at this moment
has eternal consequences. No one expressed this urgency better than the
English writer, C.S. Lewis. I would like to conclude with a quote from
him:
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and
goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person
you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you
would be tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption which
you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long, we are, in
some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.
It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the
awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of
our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play,
all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a
mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization - these are mortal,
and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals
whom we joke with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or
everlasting splendors."
Now is the right moment. Repent and believe.
This Sunday, as part of the call to repentance, I invite you to join
the Bishops Postcard Campaign to Fight FOCA.**
**********
*For that reason we should be deeply concerned if an administration
sanctions grave (mortal) sin, e.g. abortion, homosexual acts or
torture. (Regarding torture, see Catechism 2297-98.)
**For full information on the Fight FOCA Postcard Campaign, please
click here.
General Intercessions for Third Ordinary Sunday (from Priests for Life)
Spanish Version |
|
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
3 Ordinary Time
|
January 25th, 2009 A.D.
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Background:
Scripture: Mark 1:14-20
Mark's gospel is often referred to as the Kingdom gospel, because
it flows from the initial Kingdom proclamation found in today's
reading. We, like the listeners in Galilee, are invited to reform and
believe. Immediately following this invitation, we have two examples of
what the invitation requires. The first fishermen immediately abandon
their nets, and the sons of Zebedee not only abandon their nets, they
also abandon their father. Neither our possessions nor our families
must stand in the way of our following the path that will be set forth
in the remainder of Mark's gospel.
Story:
We can go to Ireland for the summer, a mother and father
announced to their children at this time of the year not so long ago.
The response was underwhelming. The older teen said the Irish are
creepy people, they talk all the time and they talk funny. Besides I
want to spend summer with my friends, their a lot neater than Irish
kids. It's a great offer, the parents said. All the kids are free both
on planes and in the cottage we'll rent in Ireland. Cottage said the
younger teen. I don't want to live in any cottage. Is it
air-conditioned in Ireland? Besides I have early football practice. You
don't need air conditioning in Ireland, said the parents and cottage is
really a nice house and theirs a town near by where they sing all the
old Irish songs. I don't want to sing Irish songs, said the older
grammar school kid. I want to hear rock and roll music (which, by the
way is all you hear in Ireland these days too). You'll have a grand
time when you get to know Irish kids your age. I don't want to meet any
Irish kids my age said the younger. I like my friends in America.
They're a lot more fun. A crazy waste of opportunity, you say? How many
opportunities have we wasted in life for reason that are pretty similar.
|
|
http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
3 Ordinary Time
|
Jan,
25, 2009
Mark 1:14-20
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel Summary
Today's gospel tells us that Jesus went to Galilee to begin his
messianic ministry. We have become so accustomed to hearing this that
we no longer notice how odd it was. Jerusalem was the religious and
political center of Israel and anyone announcing a new future for
Israel would have been expected to declare his intentions there. As
Jesus' ministry develops, however, it becomes clear that Jerusalem was
the one place in Israel that was least likely to accept his message.
The powerful people in the capital city had far too much to protect.
They could tolerate only a "controlled" reform.
Mark wastes no time in pointing out the implications of the public
mission of Jesus in Galilee: "This is the time of fulfillment." All the
hopes and dreams of Israel are about to be realized. The thousand plus
years of waiting are over. This is so because "The kingdom of God is at
hand." The hopes of Israel had been centered in the promised messianic
kingdom through which God would deliver his people from bondage and
bring everlasting peace. At long last the promise is being fulfilled;
the Messiah has arrived.
But the kingdom that Jesus had in mind was both far less and far more
that anyone in Israel had imagined--far less, because it would not mean
the end of the hated Roman occupation; far more, because it would
reveal a Messiah who is the Son of God. Thus, as their small dreams
were crushed, unimaginable divine dreams were being substituted. To
nurture these dreams, Jesus would choose, not clever politicians, but
simple honest fishermen. He knew that for his purposes a good and
generous heart was more important than a proud and ambitious head.
Life Implications
This gospel seems especially appropriate for the early years of a new
millennium, for we are painfully aware that, though 2000 years have
passed, we have not yet seen the fulfillment of God's promises. The
solution to this dilemma is the recognition that the fulfillment
envisioned by Jesus is constantly being offered to us. It is a
"rolling" fulfillment that each person must discover in his or her own
lifetime. As such, it should be the primary project of our lives. Jesus
has come, but he is also still coming, and each one of us must ask
whether he is being welcomed. Fulfillment is offered; it is never
imposed.
To live in the expectation of fulfillment is to live in the bittersweet
world of promise. What we hope for is still awaited, and that is
painful; but we also live in joyful expectation of what will be, and
that is comforting beyond words. We may be struggling in a dark valley,
but the horizon is illuminated by God's utterly trustworthy promise.
We note that Jesus called his first disciples from their workplaces.
This is a reminder that there is a purpose in life beyond work and that
this larger purpose is found in our response to God's call to walk with
him. This means taking time for prayer and gradually getting to know
the Lord as the very center of our lives. For we must come to
understand that it is in him alone that the value of our work and the
precious gift of other people will be found again and again…unto
eternity.
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
|
|
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
3 Ordinary Time
|
THIRD
Sunday of the Year
Jonah 3:1-5.10; Psalm 25;
1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The kingdom of God is at hand for each of us as, members of His one
Body, we meet Christ as Redeemer in his Church.
" 'Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the
gospel of God, and saying :"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God is at hand: repent, and believe in the gospel." '(Mark 1:14-15) 'To
carry out the will of the Father Christ inaugurated the kingdom of
heaven on earth.' (Lumen Gentium 3) Now the Father's will is 'to raise
up men to share in his own divine life.' (LG 2) He does this by
gathering men around his Son Jesus Christ. This gathering is the
Church, 'on earth the seed and beginning of that kingdom.' (Lumen
Gentium 5)" (CCC 541) The constant work, "leitourgos", which Christ has
ordained for the Church is the liturgy. This work makes the kingdom
present for the renewal and conversion of Christians and of all mankind.
Within the Church Christ calls all men to conversion, as the unfolding
and growth of baptismal grace. "Jesus calls to conversion. This call is
an essential part of the proclamation of the kingdom (Mark 1:14-15). In
the Church's preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not
yet know Christ and his Gospel. Also, Baptism is the principal place
for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by faith in the Gospel
and by Baptism (Acts 2:38) that one renounces evil and gains salvation,
that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life." (CCC
1427)
Perhaps you have been asked, "Are you saved? Have you been born again?"
For the Catholic who follows the fullness of the Gospel message the
answer is a resounding "Yes!" In John 3:3 the Lord teaches that "unless
one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The Greek word
translated as "anew" or "again" has two meanings: "again and again and
again" and "from above". The Catholic Christian is called, then, to be
born again each and every day by communion with the Savior in prayer,
in the communio of the Church, by communion with the Savior in
Confession and, in the liturgy, the proclamation of the Word and the
Holy Eucharist. The purpose of the sacramental life in Christ is the
purification and upbuilding of baptismal grace in each Christian and in
the whole Church, "again and again", each day, and "from above", in the
Holy Spirit who is from above.
"Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of
Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the
whole Church who, 'clasping sinners to her bosom, [is] at once holy and
always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of
penance and renewal.' (Lumen Gentium 8, art.3) This endeavor of
conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a 'contrite
heart,' drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God
who loved us first. (Psalm 51:17; John 6:44; 12:32; 1 John 4:10)" (CCC
1428)
Rather than allowing the scandal of sin and the problem of evil to
dishearten us, should these not rather impel us more urgently to attend
to that personal conversion for which we join in the work of worship?
Jesus Christ, "the same yesterday, today and forever", calls us to meet
him where he may be found, in Word and Sacrament, so that in our
conversion of heart we may have the perfect antidote to hopelessness,
the "pearl of great price": the kingdom within.
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick
|
|
http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
3 Ordinary Time
|
Third
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Runcorn
I have come here today to speak to you about our religious society –The
Salvatorians– and really I could not have come on a better day from the
point of view of the Sunday scripture readings.
Each one of them is talking about radical discipleship. And by radical
discipleship I mean something much more than just following Jesus in a
pedestrian sort of way. I mean something much more than merely giving
lip-service to the challenge of the Gospel.
All of us experience the call of Christ to be his disciples; if we
didn’t then not one of us would be here in this Church today. For many
of us this call of Christ was mediated through our families and
teachers; we were brought up in a believing family and absorbed the
faith along with our mother’s milk, so to speak.
We grew up sustained by our attendance at Sunday mass, enriched by our
participation in catechism classes and nurtured by the atmosphere of a
Catholic school. Quite often this was sufficient to help us to grow in
our faith and launch us into the life and routine of an adult Catholic.
However, despite all this support we are sadly aware that many others
fell by the wayside.
Many of us, though, reached adulthood with a nagging doubt. And that
doubt is that there must be more to the faith than inner devotion to
Christ and outward observance of the requirements of the Church.
We know that our Lord wants us to witness to our faith and to pass on
the Good News to our children and those we meet in life, but we
frequently don’t feel up to the task, we feel that there is something
missing.
In the readings we are told about the mission God gave to Jonah and how
he should go and preach repentance to the people of the great city of
Nineveh. Jonah did not feel up to the task either, but he did what the
Lord commanded and no one was more surprised than him when the people
of Nineveh immediately and wholeheartedly responded to his message of
repentance.
In the reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians Paul tells them
that they need to be ready to meet Christ and to take exceptional
measures to prepare themselves for the coming of the Kingdom. He goes
so far as to say that they should set aside all personal commitments,
emotions and concerns and live as though the Kingdom were already here.
And in the Gospel we see how Jesus announces that the Kingdom of God is
at hand and then calls Simon and Andrew, James and John to leave their
daily tasks and accompany him on his itinerant mission to the people of
Israel.
Christians down through the ages have been responding to the call of
Christ in similar ways. Very often they have left everything they had
and joined the ranks of the priesthood or entered religious
communities. Clearly such radical steps are not required of everyone
and yet down the centuries astonishing numbers of people have responded
to Christ by doing just these sorts of things.
And people still today leave their families and promising careers to
enter a religious order or a diocesan seminary. One such young man from
this very parish entered our own religious community just a few months
ago in order to respond to the call of God.
So one of my tasks today is to challenge others. To look around your
parish and see if there are any more people who feel that they cannot
rest content unless they make a radical commitment to Christ as a
member of a religious community.
I want to encourage them and let them know that if they feel this way
then they ought to share their thoughts with their priests and pluck up
the courage to test their vocation.
I want to reassure them that they are much needed by the Church and I
want them to know that we are praying for them and that we will support
them in this difficult but immensely rewarding journey of faith.
But what about the rest? What about those who want to deepen their
commitment to Christ but who have prior obligations that prevent them
from being quite so radical?
Well, let me suggest that this is where the Lay Salvatorians might come
in. There are many such groups within the Church; groups of laity who
want to give a more concrete expression to their faith. We can think of
the Legion of Mary and the SVP as two lay associations frequently to be
found in the parishes up and down the country. One is based on devotion
to Mary and is concerned with spreading the faith; the other is aimed
at serving the poor following the example of St Vincent de Paul. And
there are, of course, many others each with their own particular
emphasis.
This parish has been served by the Salvatorians for very many years and
over that time you have got to know our spiritual outlook. You already
know that we are members of a missionary order, but that we are not
restricted to serving in the foreign missions. In the spirit of Father
Jordan, our mission is to the whole world and our task is to use our
God-given talents to help people everywhere to come to know and love
the Divine Saviour.
So within our religious community there is a tremendous spirit of
openness to people from all walks of life and a similar openness to
accepting all kinds of different tasks as long as in some way they lead
people to God. And, like our Founder, we try our best to imitate the
goodness and kindness of our Saviour by being especially warm and
friendly and welcoming to all those we meet.
The Lay Salvatorians adopt a similar outlook and each in their own way
and in their own sphere of life, with the support of their brothers and
sisters, do what they can to make the Saviour known. If you want to
know more about the Lay Salvatorians then feel free to come along to
the meeting this afternoon and without obligation learn a little bit
more about them.
It is obvious that an active group of Lay Salvatorians working in the
parish alongside their own Salvatorian parish priest would bring
enrichment to the whole community.
St Paul tells us that the world in its present form is passing away.
And Jesus calls us to leave our old life behind and follow him. These
things are as relevant today as ever they were.
The question is whether we make a difference? Whether we are willing to
help shape this new world? Whether we are willing to leave our old ways
and attitudes and embrace wholeheartedly the life of the Gospel?
Thanks for listening and be assured of my prayers for you and your
parish that God will continue to work in and through you and that this
parish will become an ever more vibrant community of faith and love. |
|
Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
3 Ordinary Time |
|
|
These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author. |
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
