Roman Catholic Reflections and Homilies: Second Sunday Ordinary Time, year B

Second Sunday Ordinary Time year B - Sunday, January 17, 2021
(EPISODE: 273)

(EPISODE: 273)

Readings for 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
FIRST READING: 1 Sam 3: 3b-10, 19
Ps 40: 2+4, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10. "Here am I Lord; I come to do your will. "
SECOND READING: 1 Cor 6: 13c-15a, 17-20
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 1: 41+17b). Alleluia, alleluia! We have found the Messiah. Jesus Christ, who brings us truth and grace.
GOSPEL: John 1: 35-42

Image - Shutterstock licensed Image: ID:167252546. Sacrifice. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Illustration in Byzantian style. By Julia Raketic
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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for Second Sunday Ordinary Time year B - Sunday, January 17, 2021, by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-second-sunday-of-ordinary-time-year-b-episode-273/s-GmHdGOEtz7c (EPISODE: 273)
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*prologue (Fr Paul): The gospel this weekend is really fascinating. John the Baptist is speaking with two of his own disciples and says: LOOK, THERE is the Lamb of God! (Which, we now know is short-hand for… Look!... There is the one who is to come; and who will be the perfect, unblemished sacrifice to take away the sins of the world and restore our right relationship with God as not only God's people but as sons and daughters of God).

The two disciples immediately take off and follow Jesus and he invites them to stay with him. To really become disciples and followers of Jesus, we have to be close to him, and live with him, and learn from him; how he thinks, what he values, what he does not approve of, and so on. We need to "walk his walk and not just talk his talk." It took years of walking and living in Jesus' community, for the disciples to even begin to understand who he was and what his message was about. They often got it wrong or half-right, and thank goodness they had Jesus there, as the teacher, to set them straight and deepen their learning.

It would seem hard to comprehend to us that someone might see what Jesus has to offer and not accept it, but there were many people in Jesus' time who were affronted by Jesus and rejected him because his message was too challenging and too radical and at other times, not what they expected the messiah and the chosen one to be LIKE. So, it's a reminder, Many are invited but not all accept. Jesus understood this difficulty because he witnessed people stopping following him. He warned his followers to count the cost of their discipleship and not be wishy-washy because there is no time to "umm and ahh" when the work of the Kingdom is urgent!!

Jesus calls us all to the primary vocation of being servants and disciples of Christ in our daily lives and work. We achieve this by staying very close to Jesus in prayer, in scripture reflection, in reading about the teachings of Christ, in worshipping regularly in union with the Christian community and learning from the teachings of our church. Christ must live in and with us, as we with him! It is a deep and wonderful connection that we are invited into.

Each one of us today is still called by Jesus. And our response, like Samuel, is 'Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will!"

Just as Jesus received opposition, misunderstanding and rejection, so too, can we expect this for Christ's Church. But we keep persisting in this life-giving message.

Inspired by today’s second reading, - we recognise that Christ and his church, have a rather powerful and different view of the human person and the human body than do some sectors of the world. St Paul sums up this gospel-focused understanding: "You know, surely, that your bodies are members making up the body of Christ; anyone who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. ……. Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received him from God. You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for (by Christ's life, death and resurrection). That is why you should use your body for the glory of God."

At its essence, this is extremely positive and encouraging teaching. To put ourselves: mind, body and spirit, at the service of God and God’s vision. Our lives are to be lived with attention to not so much “rights,” but “responsibilities.”

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this world sometimes makes too much of different aspects of the mystery of humanity, to the point where people and actions are turned into commodities, valued for what another can get out of them, or be used as a “thing” to be traded. This leads, at its worst to “commodification” and also extreme utilitarianism- people and actions valued by what practical use, or what benefit can be obtained from them. Staying close to the message of Christ, though, is simply being honest to God’s vision, and lovingly open to the profound reality that we are each, truly unique, loved and sacred temples of the Holy Spirit, and individually members of the Body of Christ and, with God’s grace, we aim to abide in these living temples, according to everything that builds up, (not the “kingdom of me,” or the kingdom of consumerism or commodification), but rather promotes the true and life-giving Kingdom of God. … …
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References:
Fr Paul W. Kelly
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Homily – Fr Peter Dillon:
During the course of everyone's life, we encounter many people. Most of them turn out to have little or no significance in our lives and are soon forgotten. It is possible to live in the same community with others and still never get to know them or talk about the deeper things in life with them.

But there are some other encounters that turn out to be of great significance: they enrich our lives and sometimes change then utterly. You may just have one meeting with this person, and an immediate bond is formed. You feel comfortable to reveal yourself in a true and clear light.

Those of us fortunate to have many friends should sometime ask ourselves: what do my friends see in me? What aspects of our nature have attracted us in the first place? What is our common denominator? We may also notice that not all our friends are friends of each other, nor did we plan to become friends, so what connects us?

It's actually something that has been researched and has been called, 'Spiritual Affinity' and it's something that enlarges and enriches our life. It's not usually founded on a physical appearance, but has more to do with the confidence and clarity that they bring to our life.

When a friendship is born there is no tangible change to one's life – just an awareness that one's life is different and that our capacity to show and receive love and care has been miraculously been enlarged without any great effort on our own part. While it does not always involve a spoken commitment, it does require honesty, trust and commitment in order to grow. Once we come to love someone we remember almost every detail of that first encounter.

All this helps to understand the importance of this first meeting between Jesus and Peter, Andrew and John. It was clearly a wonderful encounter, so much so that John, who later came to write about the encounter in his Gospel, even remembers the hour of the day when the meeting took place. One meeting with Jesus and they were captivated by him. He gave them as much time as they wanted. They found him warm, friendly and welcoming. They knew they had met a remarkable person and a rare friendship was born. However, it was a friendship that came to be shared with a large number of those in the immediate community.

In this Gospel Andrew is much more than "the brother of Peter". He had a special function of introducing other people to Jesus so that they too could share in this life-giving friendship. Like Eli, the high priest of the first reading and John the Baptist, he has the role of bringing others into the presence of the Lord. He was the 'introducer', one who invited others into the relationship that was so nourishing for him. In some way, we all come to Jesus by way of generations of Christians who have shared their experience of Jesus, people who were introduced to Jesus by others.

The story of Christianity is a story of a chain of witnesses linked through the apostles to Jesus himself. While their words would have painted a strong picture of who Jesus was, the best introduction to Him from the apostles was the way that they lived after having met him. The way they surrendered their careers, their families and their own dreams to take on the dream that he had for them. The things they did in his name were much more effective than the things they said about him. By their lives they showed others who he was.

This of course invites us to ask ourselves; who have we introduced to Jesus? Do we think that the relationship with Christ is worth sharing? Do we know enough about your connection with Jesus to confidently let others know about him? Is our relationship so private that we don't want to share it with anyone else? Do we think that in knowing Jesus others may come to know more about their possibilities and abilities?

We all have to play our part in introducing Jesus to others but we don't have to be great missionaries to do this: if we believe that Jesus is worth knowing, we will bring others into his loving presence by our quiet witness. And this is how the Christian faith grows and this is how we may be the means to create this connection.
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References:
Fr Peter Dillon

Image - Shutterstock licensed Image: ID:167252546. Sacrifice. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Illustration in Byzantian style. By Julia Raketic

Second Sunday Ordinary Time year B (Sunday, January 17, 2021) (EPISODE: 273)
The Lord be with you.
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{{hello everyone}} welcome everyone, we gather - To Pray, listen and reflect upon God and God's Kingdom.

As we begin the Holy Eucharist, let us acknowledge our sinfulness, so as to worthily celebrate the sacred mysteries.
sung (or Lord Jesus, you have revealed yourself as the way to the Father: Lord, have mercy//You have poured out on your people the Spirit of truth: Christ, have mercy//You are the Good Shepherd, leading us to eternal life: Lord have mercy)
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
2. When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord until you come again.
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PREFACE: Sundays I
EP II
Communion side. pwk: RH
(theme variation: 4 )
(pre+post variation: 3)
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{Bless you all and May God's grace guide you each and every day of this week.}

Go in peace.(glorifying the Lord by your life)

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Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to my weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here.
NB - It is often a week or so Ahead: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by sending an email to this address: paulkellyreflections+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

- "Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - in memory of William John Kelly - Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

"Quiet Time." Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly. Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

[ Production - KER - 2021]

May God bless and keep you.
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Roman Catholic Reflections and Homilies

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Second Sunday Ordinary Time, year B - Sunday, January 17, 2021 (EPISODE: 273)

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