Called into a Community: The Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024

Called into a Community:

The Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024 

January 14, 2024

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1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 6:3-20; John 1:35-42

 

 

Ordinary Time begins with the call narratives of our revered biblical figures, and we see that the call is done through quiet invitations. Samuel is awakened by a voice that he has yet to confirm is from Eli. God’s voice spoke to Samuel in his subconscious world persistently and clearly enough that he had to respond. The Gospel also is a call narrative in which two of John the Baptist’s disciples check out Jesus at John’s urging. The curiosity begins with the two men, and Jesus responds to their curiosity. He asks them to come and see who Jesus is. If they want to live like him, be like him, minister as he does, then come along. He lets them know that they will be joining a community that is in mission to God’s people. They spend time with him. They listen to what he says, and they see how he interacts with people, and they form their own opinions about who he is. He says, “Come and See.”

 

I am reminded of the invitation the Fr. Pedro Arrupe offered to a young man who wished to be a Jesuit. He said, 

 

Stay at home if this idea makes you unsettled or nervous. Do not come to us if you love the Church like a stepmother, rather than a mother; Do not come if you think that in so doing you will be doing the Society of Jesus a favor. Come if serving Christ is at the very center of your life. Come if you have broad and sufficiently strong shoulders. Come if you have an open spirit, a reasonably open mind, and a heart larger than the world. Come if you know how to tell a joke and can laugh with others and … on occasions you can laugh at yourself.

 

When we are called, we are invited into a larger community. There is a personal dimension, but it is largely to a wider communal experience. In the second reading, St. Paul reminds us that we are brought into the Body of Christ when we become his disciples. Therefore, we are not to privatize our faith and keep to ourselves. We are not to come to church and not say hello to anyone else. We are not only to associate with those we like or share the same theological orientations as we do. Our prayers are not to be only for ourselves but for the buildup of the community. Though we approach the altar alone for the Eucharist or we go to confession on our own, and we need to see that when we are in church, we are experiencing communion with all who are gathered and absent. We are to be like those two early disciples of Jesus who spent time him and his community, who ate with him and his community, and who ministered with his and his community. As disciples, it is never about me and Jesus, but me and the community of Jesus. 

 

As Grateful Disciples, we need to first and foremost see ourselves as vital, contributing members of this church gathered in a particular place. We are not just a local parish community, but part of a worldwide enterprise, a global church with much diversity and distinctive needs. We are responsible for one another, which is not just fellow Catholics, but for all people whose lives are difficult. Our responsibility though starts here in this local community. Are we vibrant, curious disciples who want to know more? Is the mission of Jesus and his follower central to my hopes? Do I keep an open spirit, a reasonably open mind, and a heart larger than the world? If so, come deeper. The invitation of the living Jesus is not an historical fact; it continues to unfold today within this community of which you are apart. Keep your curiosity alive. What are you looking for? Come and see

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (1 Samuel 15) Samuel said to Saul: “Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” Saul replied, “Speak!” Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem, are you not leader of the tribes of Israel?

 

Tuesday: (1 Samuel 16) The LORD said to Samuel: “How long will you grieve for Saul, whom I have rejected as king of Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way.

 

Wednesday: (1 Samuel 17) David spoke to Saul: "Let your majesty not lose courage. I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine." But Saul answered David,
"You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him, for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth."

 

Thursday: (1 Samuel 18) Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought: “They give David ten thousands, but only thousands to me. All that remains for him is the kingship.” And from that day on, Saul was jealous of David.

 

Friday (1 Samuel 24) David's servants said to him, "This is the day of which the LORD said to you, 'I will deliver your enemy into your grasp; do with him as you see fit.'"

 

Saturday (2 Samuel 1) “Tell me what happened,” David bade him. He answered that many of the soldiers had fled the battle and that many of them had fallen and were dead, among them Saul and his son Jonathan.

 

Gospel: 

 

Monday: (Mark 2) But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.

 

Tuesday: (Mark 2) “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?

 

Wednesday (Mark 3) "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."

 

Thursday (Mark 3) A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea. Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan.

 

Friday (Mark 3) Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles,
that they might be with him.

 

Saturday (Mark 3) Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

 

Saints of the Week

 

January 14: Hilary, bishop and doctor (315-367), was born in Gaul and received the faith as an adult. He was made bishop of Poitiers and defended the church against the Arian heresy. He was exiled to the Eastern Church where his orthodox rigidity made him too much to handle so the emperor accepted him back. 

 

January 17: Anthony, Abbot (251-356), was a wealthy Egyptian who gave away his inheritance to become a hermit. Many people sought him out for his holiness and asceticism. After many years in solitude, he formed the first Christian monastic community. Since he was revered, he went to Alexandria to encourage the persecuted Christians. He met Athanasius and helped him fight Arianism.

 

January 20: Fabian, pope and martyr (d. 250), was a layman and stranger in Rome during the time of his election as pope. A dove settled on his head, which reminded people of the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove during the baptism. He served for 14 years until his martyrdom.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• January 14, 1989. The death of John Ford SJ, moral theologian and teacher at Weston College and Boston College. He served on the papal commission on birth control. 
• January 15, 1955. The death of Daniel Lord SJ, popular writer, national director of the Sodality, founder of the Summer School of Catholic Action, and editor of The Queen's Work. 
• January 16, 1656. At Meliapore, the death of Fr. Robert de Nobili, nephew of Cardinal Bellarmine. Sent to the Madura mission, he learned to speak three languages and for 45 years labored among the high caste Brahmins. 
• January 17, 1890. Benedict Sestini died. He was an astronomer, editor, architect, mathematician, and teacher at Woodstock College. 
• January 18, 1615. The French Jesuits began a mission in Danang, Vietnam. 
• January 19, 1561. In South Africa, the baptism of the powerful King of Monomotapa, the king's mother, and 300 chiefs by Fr. Goncalvo de Silveira. 
• January 20, 1703. At Paris, the death of Fr. Francis de la Chaise, confessor to Louis XIV and a protector of the French Church against the Jansenists.