It is Time to Accept Yes: The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026

                                               It is Time to Accept Yes:

The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026 

January 25, 2026

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Isaiah 8:23-9:3; Psalm 27; 1 Corinthians 1:10-17; Matthew 4:12-23

 

The arrest of John the Baptist was the signal that Jesus could begin his ministry in earnest. John held a place of public prominence and Jesus was still unknown to most of Israel. John was preaching repentance for the coming day of salvation, and Jesus begins to announce that the time has come. The two could not be preached at the same time. The message of Jesus had a radical immediacy about it. Now, that the message was announced, he could begin to assemble his ministerial team. 

 

Jesus showed that his presence made holy what was regarded as profane. The land of Zebulun and Napthali was considered forsaken and barren, and Jesus chose this as his base of preaching, by the Sea of Galilee in Capernaum. His act of preaching redeemed a land once forsaken, thereby foreshadowing his work of redeeming humanity. The people who lived in darkness could now see they are welcomed by God and enjoy a place of privilege. Jesus shows that it is from this disregarded place that he will select his band of preachers and helpers.

 

Sometimes when we think of the first Disciples, we think of them as saints from the first instant. So much has been written about them that we see them in an exalted state. It is important for us to see them as disregarded people who were called to greater matters. It can be a source of great consolation because many of us think that we could not be called to greater things because we are ordinary. What makes the ordinary extraordinary is trusting and then accepting the invitations that are before us. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were from an ordinary fishing families, and they answered “Yes” to a curious invitation. The search for the Kingdom of God rests in each person, and we seek it out all our lives.

 

What is your experience of saying “No.” It seems like we spend many of our early years learning to say “No,” and by the time we become adults, “No” is so ingrained in us that we forget the freedom of learning to say “Yes.” Maybe saying “No” makes us grow old. People who do not travel far from their way of life tend to live in fear. When we say no, we can no longer imagine the new and the unknown, and we settle into a quiet status quo. 

 

The two sets of brothers learned to say “yes” without a roadmap. Together with Jesus they learned how to make their new adventure happen. Sometimes saying “Yes” does not make any sense, and that is where it becomes a little frightening, a little exhilarating. Suddenly, the possibilities become fun. Accepting something new in our lives scares most people to death as they would rather have what is familiar and comfortable. It takes us out of our comfort zones, but we can do through trusting that all will be okay. In fact, it will be better than okay. We can enter a mystery where we cannot see the way forward, and yet, we know it is the only way forward. It is a land of the unknown where the journey will unfold with each new step.

 

Accepting a new invitation opens our world to freshness and redemption. The people of the forsaken lands of Zebulun and Naphtali said “Yes” and God redeemed them. Imagine what your “yes” can do for you. You glimpse the possibilities of the Kingdom, and you know, deep down, you have been called to greater matters. The Kingdom of God has been opened for you.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (2 Timothy 1) For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.

 

Tuesday: (2 Samuel 6) Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. When he finished making these offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.

 

Wednesday: (2 Samuel 7) Should you build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day on which I led the children of Israel out of Egypt to the present, 
but I have been going about in a tent under cloth.

 

Thursday: (2 Samuel 7) “You have established for yourself your people Israel as yours forever, and you, LORD, have become their God. And now, LORD God, confirm for all time the prophecy you have made concerning your servant and his house, and do as you have promised.

 

Friday (2 Samuel 11) David, however, remained in Jerusalem. One evening David rose from his siesta and strolled about on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing, who was very beautiful.

 

Saturday (2 Samuel 12) Nathan said: “Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Mark 3) Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

 

Tuesday: (Mark 3) A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you." But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"

 

Wednesday (Mark 4) Hear this! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.

 

Thursday (Mark 4) Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light.

 

Friday (Mark 4) This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

 

Saturday (Mark 4) On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: “Let us cross to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,so that it was already filling up.

 

Saints of the Week

 

January 25: The Conversion of Paul, the Apostle, was a pivotal point in the life of the early church. Scripture contains three accounts of his call and the change of behavior and attitudes that followed. Paul's story is worth knowing as it took him 14 years of prayer and study to find meaning in what happened to him on the road to Damascus.

 

January 26: Timothy and Titus, bishops (1st century), were disciples of Paul who later became what we know of as bishops. Timothy watched over the people of Ephesus and Titus looked after Crete. Both men worked with Paul and became a community leader. Timothy was martyred while Titus died of old age. 

 

January 27: Angela Merici (1474-1540), was the founder of the Ursuline nuns. Relatives raised her when her parents died when she was 10. As an adult, she tended to the needs of the poor and with some friends, she taught young girls at their home. These friends joined an association that later became a religious order. Ursula was the patron of medieval universities.

 

January 28: Thomas Aquinas, priest and Doctor (1225-1274), studied in a Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino as a boy. He joined the newly formed Dominicans where he studied in France and Italy. He is a giant scholar. He wrote much on Scripture and theology, including his summation of theology (Summa Theologiae). He wrote several songs for liturgy, such as the Tantum Ergo, Pange Lingua, and Adoro Te Devote.

 

January 31: John Bosco, priest (1815-1888), formed his Society to aid children who were imprisoned. He used Francis de Sales as his inspiration. He taught poor and working class boys in the evenings wherever it was possible to meet them - in fields, factories, or homes. A sister community was set up to assist young girls who were sent to work. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• January 25, 1707. Cardinal Tournon, Apostolic Visitor of the missions in China, forbade the use of the words 'Tien' or 'Xant' for God and ordered the discontinuance by the Christians of the Chinese Rites. 
• January 26, 1611. The first Jesuit missionaries sailed from Europe for New France (Canada). 
• January 27, 1870. The Austrian government endeavored to suppress the annual grant of 8,000 florins to the theological faculty of Innsbruck and to drive the Jesuit professors from the university, because of their support of the Papal Syllabus. 
• January 28, 1853. Fr. General John Roothaan, wishing to resign his office, summoned a General Congregation, but died on May 8, before it assembled. 
• January 29, 1923. Woodstock scholastics kept a fire vigil for several months to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from setting the college on fire. 
• January 30, 1633. At Avignon, Fr. John Pujol, a famous master of novices, died. He ordered one of them to water a dry stick, which miraculously sprouted. 
• January 31, 1774. Fr. General Laurence Ricci, a prisoner in Castel S Angelo, claimed his liberty, since his innocence had been fully vindicated. He received from the Papal Congregation the reply that they would think about it. Pope Clement XIV was said at this time to be mentally afflicted.