{"id":997,"date":"2020-01-22T14:28:53","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T14:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=997"},"modified":"2020-01-22T14:28:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T14:28:53","slug":"26-january-2020-a-third-sunday-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=997","title":{"rendered":"26 January 2020 (A) Third Sunday of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A. The bible<\/em> as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.\nReflection & Dialogue:  <\/em><\/strong>Good beginnings;\nrepentance, a change of mind, belief in the Gospel and in the Church.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0A. The Bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings). <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 First Reading<\/em> (Isaiah 8:23-9:3). In Galilee of the nations the people has\nseen a great light.<\/em> The prophet who composed this reading was looking both\nbackwards and forwards. The historical background to this reading seems to have\nbeen the events of 732 BC when the Assyrian armies completely destroyed the\nnorthern part of the northern kingdom of Israel and incorporated it into the\nAssyrian empire, with consequent heavy taxation and imposition of pagan gods.\nAssyria would completely destroy the northern kingdom of Israel with the\ncapture and destruction of Samaria in 723\/721 BC. For the prophet Isaiah, this for Jerusalem and Judah was\na period of deep darkness. In prophetic vision Isaiah sees new life for God\u2019s\npeople, with their fortunes reversed. A great light would shine for them. They\nwill rejoice as was the custom at harvest time, and of victors after war. The\nvictory to be worked for them by God will be like that well-known one by Gideon\nin Israel\u2019s ancient past against the invading Midianites (Midian); see Judges\n7:15-25. In any event Isaiah\u2019s vision of the future Davidic king, and the\nreversal of circumstances, was not fulfilled in his own time, and like many\nothers remained as a vision of the future. The opening section is chosen by\nMatthew (Mat 4:12-17) to introduce Jesus\u2019 preaching of the advent of the\nkingdom of God in Galilee. The vision continues to be an inspiration for all\nChristians to work for the realisation of Isaiah\u2019s message in personal, public\nand political life \u2013 the kingdom of Christ is one of peace, justice and hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsorial\nPsalm <\/em>(Psalm 26[27]).\nThe Lord is my light and my help.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second\nReading <\/em>(1\nCorinthians 1:10-13, 17). Make up the\ndifferences between you instead of disagreeing among yourselves. <\/em>The introduction\nto this letter to the Corinthians was read last Sunday, in a text in which Pail\nspeaks of the great gifts bestowed on the members of the young Christian\ncommunity at Corinth, a holy people chosen by God, on whom he prays that God\nmay bestow grace and peace. Some five years after his initial preaching there\nPaul feels that the Christian life of this Church is in danger by reason of a\ncertain personality cult there, leading to divisions which Paul believes would\ntake from a proper understanding of the true nature of the Church of Christ.\nPaul was preaching the Gospel in Asia, to the east of the Adriatic Sea,\nprobably in Ephesus, when he was informed of the problems in the church at\nCorinth \u201cfrom Chloe\u2019s people\u201d, probably slaves or business agents for this\nCorinth trading company. The church at Corinth was divided in four groups\naround individual distinguished known Church persons: Paul, Apollos, Cephas\n(Peter) and even Christ. Apollos was a well-known learned, eloquent Jew from\nAlexandria, well versed in the Scriptures. He was well versed in \u201cthe way of\nthe Lord\u201d, Christianity, but knew only the baptism of John. At Ephesus Paul\u2019s\nfriends Priscilla and Aquila gave him further instruction. The Ephesus\nChristian community encouraged him to cross over to Achaia (southern Greece),\nincluding Corinth, and preach Christ there, which he did. Apollos played no\npart with the group invoking his name. He left Corinth and did not return. The\ncentral role of Cephas (Peter) would have been well known, but it is unlikely\nthat he had visited Corinth. Christ\u2019s role could not be reduced that that of\none in four. His role was central and all Christians were baptised in his name.\nChrist crucified was central to Christian belief, and only through the cross\ncould the mystery of the church be understood. The divisions in Corinth were\nlinked with the quest of human wisdom. Throughout the following four chapters\nof this Epistles, to be read in the following five Sundays, Paul will stress\nthe central role of Christ\u2019s cross, the danger of human wisdom and the reality\nof divine power and the divine wisdom central to Christianity. Since the world did\nnot come to know God through its human wisdom, God decided to save the world\nthrough the foolishness of Christian preaching of the Cross. As Paul put it:\n\u201cChrist is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God\u2019s foolishness is wiser\nthan human wisdom, and God\u2019s weakness is stronger than human strength\u201d. In the\ntexts following on this Paul goes on to illustrate this point. Christ is central;\nall success comes from him. Anybody else, apostle or otherwise, is but a co-worker\nwith Christ. He then lays stress on his own role as apostle \u2013 chosen by God to\npreach these truths to his churches, without fear or favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gospel <\/em>(Matthew 4:12-23). He\nwent and settled in Capernaum: in this way the prophecy of Isaiah was to be\nfulfilled.<\/em> In this reading Matthew begins his account of the public life of\nJesus by stressing that it began in Galilee. Jesus left Nazareth and went and\nsettled in Capernaum, and Matthew notes that this place was situated in the\nancient areas of Zebulun and Naphtali. As is his custom, Matthew notes that\nthis was to fulfil prophecy, in this instance that of Isaiah read as the first\nreading today. Jesus proclaimed that a new age had arrived, and called for\nrepentance, that is a change of mind, and implicitly for belief in the Gospel\nmessage he was to begin preaching. The kingdom of heaven was now close at hand.\nThe reading also tells of Jesus\u2019 call and choice of his first disciples: Simon\n(called Peter) and his brother Andrew and also James and his brother John. The\ntext notes that all four followed him at once. This Gospel passage is so\nphrased as to serve as a model for all future calls of Jesus in the Church to\nfollow him in the service of the Gospel message. The sudden response of these\ndisciples (as if they had never known Jesus before) need not surprise us. We\nknow from John\u2019s Gospel that they had already encountered Jesus as he and they\nwere present at the Jordan where John the Baptist was active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B. The Bible in Dialogue with\nQuestions of the Day. Reflection\nand Dialogue: <\/em><\/strong>Good beginnings; repentance, a change of mind, belief in the\nGospel and in the Church.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection. Repentance, change of\nmind, belief in the Gospel. <\/em>We are at the beginning of the Yearly Cycle in\nthe Sunday liturgy. The manner in which Jesus began his public ministry\nprovides material for our reflection. A new age had arrived, and with it the\ncoming of the kingdom of God for long awaited. Two basic states of soul are\ncalled for in this new situation: repentance and faith. In this context\nrepentance does not so much mean sorrow for sin as a change of mental attitude,\na change that will be in keeping with acceptance of Jesus and what belief in\nhis person and teaching implies, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The\nchance in question is not from political, or any other, form of opportunism,\nbut belief in the God of Israel who is now speaking through his Son to Israel\nand the wider world. Jesus had been anointed for this mission with the Spirit\nat his baptism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialogue with contemporary society: Human wisdom and Divine Wisdom. <\/em>In\npresent-day political society Jesus is held in high regard, with his concern\nfor the poor, the disadvantaged and the marginalized. This is all to the good.\nIn part it is connected with the understanding which a certain section of\nsociety, especially in Europe, had of itself from the philosophical movement of\nthe Enlightenment onwards, with emphasis on human progress without reference to\nGod or to Jesus as Son of God. But as Paul reminds us in today\u2019s reading, and\nas he will in the next few Sundays, the Gospel message is not understood\nthrough human wisdom, but through faith in Christ crucified, which is the\ndivine wisdom made manifest. The Cross must have a central place in the life of\nthe Church. This is a fundamental truth, worth remembering in any dialogue with\nmodern society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(<\/em><\/strong>For reflections\non the Sunday and Feast Day  readings <\/em>see Martin McNamara, Sunday\nReadings with Matthew: Interpretations and Reflections<\/em>, Dublin, Veritas,\n2016)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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