Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 21, 2018

FIRST READING
Jonah 3:1-5,10
God spared the people of Nineveh because they heeded the message God
sent through Jonah.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7,8-9
The Lord teaches us his ways.

SECOND READING
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Paul warns the Corinthians that they must act differently because the
world in its present form is passing away.

GOSPEL READING
Jesus calls the fishermen, Simon and Andrew, James and John, to be his
disciples.

GOSPEL MK 1:14-20

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.

BACKGROUND ON THE GOSPEL READING

Today we begin a continuous reading of Mark's Gospel that will carry us
through this segment of the liturgical season of Ordinary Time. Remember
that in Cycle B of the Lectionary, most of the Gospel readings are taken
from the Gospel according to Mark.

The Gospel of Mark does not begin with a narrative about Jesus' birth.
Instead Mark begins by reporting on the preaching of John the Baptist.
John is described as the voice in the wilderness sent to prepare the way
of the Lord. Immediately after describing the work of John the Baptist,
Mark reports on Jesus' baptism and his temptation in the desert. Jesus'
public ministry begins after the arrest of John the Baptist. Mark wants
his readers to understand the important connection between the end of
the ministry of John the Baptist and the beginning of Jesus' own
ministry.

As we learn at the beginning of today's Gospel reading, Jesus preaches
the Kingdom of God in continuity with the preaching of John the Baptist.
Like John the Baptist, Jesus' pronouncement of the kingdom is a call to
repentance. Yet Jesus' preaching is greater than John's. Jesus begins
the time of fulfillment; the Kingdom of God is already here. This will
be demonstrated again and again, both in Jesus' words and in the actions
that follow. Jesus' healings and forgiveness of sins are signs of the
Kingdom of God that he announces in his teaching.

In contrast to last week's Gospel, in Mark's Gospel Jesus takes the
initiative in calling his first disciples. As mentioned last week, it
was more typical of first-century rabbinical schools for students to
seek out rabbis, asking to be their disciples. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus
breaks with this tradition and invites his disciples to learn from him.
Jesus is said to have first called four fishermen--Simon, Andrew, James,
and John. Simon and Andrew are brothers. Jesus promises that he will
make them "fishers of men." James and John are also brothers. Mark does
not report Jesus' words of invitation to them, but he does report that
they left their fishing immediately; their father, Zebedee, was left
behind in the boat.

Mark's Gospel is told with a great sense of urgency and immediacy. Jesus
is a person of action, and events occur in rapid succession. We see this
in today's Gospel. Time is of the essence; the fishermen immediately put
aside their livelihood to become Jesus' disciples. The Kingdom of God is
here and now. The time of fulfillment is at hand. How might our lives be
different if we more fully shared this sense of the immediacy of God's
kingdom?

FAMILY CONNECTION

Today's Gospel describes how Jesus called his first disciples and the
immediacy with which these men dropped everything to follow him. We can
only begin to imagine what Jesus' presence must have been like to invoke
such a response in these first disciples. While a few of us might relate
to such a radical conversion, many of us would find such a sudden change
in ourselves or in another person unsettling. There are few things for
which we would willingly drop everything. And yet this is the immediacy
with which these first disciples responded to Jesus. These first
disciples were willing to drop everything in order to make Jesus and the
Kingdom of God the most important things in their lives.

Gather as a family and talk about circumstances in which you have had to
"drop everything." (The call to pick up a sick child from school, the
cry of a hurt or angry child) How did you feel about having to change
your plans in each of these situations? How do we feel when someone asks
us to drop everything to help him or her? For many of us, it is not easy
to drop everything to respond to the needs of another.

Read today's Gospel, Mark 1:14-20. Invite your family to imagine what
Jesus' presence and invitation to these first followers must have been
like that they responded by leaving their livelihood to become his
disciples. How might our life change if we understood the Kingdom of God
to be as important and immediate in our lives? Ask God to help you
experience the Kingdom of God with such immediacy. Pray together the
Lord's Prayer.


Sources: Loyola Press;Sunday Readings