Readings in January/February 2012
Monday 2 January
Saints Basil the Great and
Gregory Nazianzen
1John 2.22-28; Psalm 97; John 1.19-28
In these days post Christmas, the Church continues to offer us readings from the first letter of St John. These invite us into a sustained, consoling and beautifully poetic reflection on what it is that this Christ, in whose birth we have rejoiced, reveals to us about God and his love for us. They spell out the implications of the Incarnation for us believers and how it can change our mindset and our lives. John speaks of a knowledge and a truth we possess as followers of Jesus that will liberate us from all that prevents us from living the fullness of the life he offers. His Incarnation transforms our humanity and sets us free to live as God’s children. This is a welcome and upbeat message with which to begin the New Year. In the Gospel, John the Baptist heralds the coming of Christ as if in anticipation of his baptism and the beginning of his ministry which we celebrate next Monday.
Tuesday 3 January
1John 2.29-3.6; Psalm 97; John 1.29-34
The Incarnation bespeaks the transformation of our lives if we embrace Christ and appropriate what God bestows on us in him: “everyone whose life is righteous has been begotten by [God]”, like Jesus, and like Jesus, we are called God’s children. God’s life is in us and, as such, sin has no place in us as it is a denial of who we truly are as God’s children. The Gospel reminds us that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The references to his baptism prepare us for the coming feast that begins his ministry and marks the start of the Ordinary Time of the year when the Church sets off, once again, on the journey which recalls and reflects on the whole mystery of Christ. It also reminds us that it is through our own baptism that we are reborn into the life of Christ and embrace the fruits of the Incarnation, beginning our own journey into the life of the Trinity and the hope it holds out to us of fullness of life with God.
Wednesday 4 January
1John 3.7-10; Psalm 97; John 1.35-42
John lays out the choices before us as God’s children in Christ. The beginning of the New Year is, traditionally, a time when we review our lives and make a recommitment to good resolutions. In his timely reminder of the choice between good and evil that confronts all of us every day of our lives, and how this relates to our fundamental choice for Christ, John does not mince his words: “anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother is no child of God’s”. This is a wake-up call to radically think through how we live our lives, what our priorities are, and how we deal with others, especially those closest to us. The Gospel shows us how Jesus invites those he calls into an intimate sharing of his life which will transform them – but only if they turn away from the past and shun what is not of God.
Thursday 5 January
1John 3.11-21; Psalm 99; John 1.43-51
John spells out the cost of loving for the Christian, for whom it is an imperative, a sine qua non. Hate, envy and jealousy are inimical to the presence of love in our hearts. To the extent that these passions rule our lives, God’s life cannot find a home in us. John’s teaching is hard-hitting and direct, yet we can appreciate the wisdom of it and are encouraged to make sure “our love is not just words or mere talk, but something real and active”. There can be no better advice for us to set the agenda for the beginning of a new year with the chance it offers for positive change. Integrity is a quality Jesus looks for in those who follow him, and he finds it in the initially sceptical and scornful Nathanael. Yet he is a man who is willing to admit he can be wrong, and therefore, open to change and open to Jesus as his eloquent act of faith in Jesus makes clear.
Friday 6 January
1John 5.5-13; Psalm 147; Mark 1.6-11 or Luke 3.23-38
The Spirit, the water and the blood are the three witnesses by which God testifies to his Son. The sacramental imagery here is clear. The Spirit has testified to God in Jesus on a number of occasions in scripture: at his Incarnation, at his baptism (as today’s Gospel records), in the giving of the Holy Spirit to his disciples after the resurrection and at Pentecost. The water and the blood recall the death of Jesus on the cross when blood and water flowed from his pierced side and were seen from the earliest times as symbols of baptism and the Eucharist, and the whole sacramental life of the Church. Thus, the Fathers speak of the Church being born out of the side of Christ. The Spirit, of course, breathes life into the whole sacramental economy of the Church. It is the manifestation of the eternal life God imparts to the faithful through the Church, the visible body of Christ. It is this life-giving mystery into which we have been drawn through our faith in Jesus, and, reinforced by ‘the Spirit, the water and the blood’, we in our turn are to be his witnesses in the world.
Saturday 7 January
1John 5.14-21; Psalm 149; John 2.1-11.
‘We are confident that if we ask the Son of God for anything and it is in accordance with his will, he will hear us.’ As if to confirm John’s words in the first reading, Jesus’ own mother asks a favour of him in the Gospel at the marriage feast at Cana, and he grants what she asks abundantly. There is a traditional connection between Jesus’ baptism and the marriage at Cana. This is the first occasion on which the event of his baptismal initiation into his God-given ministry is proved and ratified by God in the miracle of the transformation of the water into wine. This is confirmation that, in one sense, his time has come, or at least the countdown to the ‘hour’ of his glorification on the cross has begun. We prepare to follow the key moments of that countdown in the unfolding of the paschal mystery through the public ministry of Jesus beginning with his baptism celebrated on Monday.
First Week in Ordinary Time (Cycle II)
Monday 9 January
The Baptism of the Lord
Alternative readings for Year B:
Isaiah 55.1-11;
Responsorial Canticle:
Isaiah 12 (1John 5.1-9)
Mark 1.7-11 (or, where this reading was used last Friday, Matthew 3.13-17)
Isaiah’s invitation to join the banquet of heavenly life opens itself to the Christian interpretation whereby God invites us to share heavenly life in Christ through the waters of baptism. This call is to all peoples and it is a call to turn away from sin if God’s life is truly to be found. The final paragraph could be seen as linking the Incarnation to Christ’s mission in his baptism. The reading from 1 John affirms that it is by faith in Christ Jesus that we become God’s children and the Gospel describes the singular event of Jesus’ baptism accompanied as it is by the Father’s endorsement and anointing of Jesus as his beloved Son on whom God’s Spirit and favour rest.
Ordinary Time begins this cycle with the difficult concept of kingship in the Old Testament. The people request a king to rule over them, but there is something almost blasphemous about the request since Israel has no king but God, and it is he who rules over his people. The request seems like a rejection of God, but eventually God allows this, though he chooses the kings through his prophets right up until the nation divides after Solomon. The fact that Jeroboam is elected by the people seems to underline the rift that is growing between God and his people – with unhappy results.
Tuesday 10 January
1Samuel 1.9-20 ; Canticle: 1 Samuel 2; Mark 1.21-28
Hannah’s barrenness makes her the object of disdain by other women and she longs for a child to ‘take away her shame’ among her people. If her wish should be granted, she will offer her baby to God to be consecrated to God’s service as a nazirite (Numbers 6.1-8), thus recognising her child as God’s gift. The greatest thanks she can give is to offer her son back to God for his service. Thus is Samuel born and consecrated to the Lord. In the Gospel Jesus claims back for God a man possessed by an evil spirit. The message of both readings would seem to be that all human beings are precious in the sight of God and belong to God alone.
Wednesday 11 January;
1Samuel 3.1-10, 19-20; Psalm 39; Mark 1.29-39
Wise Eli helps Samuel discern his vocation. It is God who calls him and consecrates him, and it is God who guarantees what he says as a prophet, letting ‘no word of his fall to the ground.’ Consequently, his ministry is successful in spreading God’s word. In the Gospel, by contrast, Jesus forbids the evil spirits he drives out of the possessed from speaking. Their words are not of God, are not true and can only deceive others and lead them astray. Our words, our manner of speaking say a great deal about whether it is the Holy Spirit or the spirit of self-indulgence, self-promotion or some other which primarily motivates us. As Christians we should weigh our words carefully so that they promote healing, truth and love.
Thursday 12 January
1Samuel 4.1-11; Psalm 43; Mark 1.40-45
It is only after they suffer a heavy defeat that Israel remembers their God and his presence in the Ark of the Covenant. While bringing the Ark into the field of battle inspires them with great confidence and their enemies with great fear, not only do they still lose the ensuing battle with heavy loss of life, but the enemy also capture the Ark. This is a bitter blow. The lesson is that Israel had forgotten its God. They only bring God into their struggle as an afterthought and a last resort when his presence is seen as something almost magical, or mascot-like. We can be in danger of side-lining God in the same way, seeing him only as a last resort in times of dire need instead of a constant companion with whom we share a continuous inner dialogue to inform the daily circumstances of our lives.
Friday 13 January
1Samuel 8.4-7, 10-22; Psalm 88; Mark 2.1-12
The reading from Samuel marks a sad but significant moment in the history of God’s people. Their request for a king like the countries round about shows the depth of the rift developing between the people and their God. Always, hitherto, it had been understood that Israel had no king but the Lord, and this gave them superiority over all the peoples around them for who else is governed by God rather than some weak and potentially corrupt human leader? God capitulates to their request seeing that they are determined on this course in spite of the picture of exploitation Samuel paints. Our own age can testify graphically to the dangers of delegating too much power to leaders who use it irresponsibly or to further their own ends; and to the loss of a moral compass in society as a result of the attrition of Christian values as the basis for a culture’s moral and ethical foundations.
Saturday 14 January
1Samuel 9.1-4, 17-19, 10.1; Psalm 20; Mark 2.13-17
Samuel anoints Saul as king over Israel and a new phase begins in the nation’s history. At least Saul may give back to the people a pride in their own nationhood and culture and reduce the allure of surrounding peoples. In the Gospel, Jesus calls Levi (Matthew) the tax-collector and eats with other members of that despised occupation in his house. This raises questions in the minds of the Pharisees who see Jesus’ association with the tax-collectors as both a betrayal of the Jews and an activity unfit for a rabbi. His answer is simple: it is the sinners not the perfect who need his ministry. Given the eschatological symbolism of the meal, Jesus’ actions would seem to bear out his warning that prostitutes and sinners will enter the kingdom before those originally invited who will languish outside.
Second week in Ordinary Time
Monday 16 January
1Samuel 15.16-23; Psalm 49; Mark 2.18-22
Samuel upbraids King Saul who, it seems, was not interested in destroying the enemies of the Lord, only in making off with the best of their sheep and cattle. He lives his religion by his own rules rather than by God’s will and this disqualifies him from leading God’s people. It is possible for us to ‘customise’ our religious life in a similar way, picking and choosing which tenets of our faith to believe and which to reject, which teaching to follow and which to ignore, but this is to withhold our wholehearted commitment to Christ and to make a patchwork religion to our own design subject to the same fate as the cloak of new and old cloth described in the Gospel.
Tuesday 17 January
St Anthony of Egypt
1Samuel 16.1-13; Psalm 88; Mark 2.23-28
In a well-known passage, Samuel is dispatched by God to find someone worthy to replace the disgraced Saul. The Lord’s choice is the least likely of the sons of Jesse, David, a mere boy with no experience of leadership or judgment. But God does not see as humans see, and in David he finds the qualities of true leadership, openness and integrity he seeks in the one to lead his people. In the Gospel, too, Jesus demonstrates in a similar way that categories established by human beings and set into inflexible law do not always coincide with God’s view of things as expressed in Jesus. The law needs to be tempered by common sense and compassion. ‘Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men’, wrote Douglas Bader.
Wednesday 18 January
1Samuel 17.32-33, 37, 40-51; Psalm 143; Mark 3.1-6
In the ill-matched contest between David and Goliath, God demonstrates that his favour can tip the balance. David’s convincing victory affirms God’s choice of the boy as successor to Saul. In the Gospel the problem of Jesus’ challenge to Sabbath observance finds another situation to give his enemies ammunition to use against him. His healing of the man with the withered hand seems to be the last straw as they go off to plot how to destroy him. Restoring or saving life on the Sabbath trumps the rigid interpretation of the law these enemies favour and gives us another principle from the example of Jesus to consult in applying the law.