Saturday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Hebrews 4:12-16
We read today two much-quoted passages from Hebrews, and the reading is in two distinct parts. The first is about the power of Scripture, and the second speaks of Jesus as our High Priest.
First, we are told of the power of God’s word. It is a word that has been conveyed all throughout the long line of prophets and other spokespersons in the Old Testament, culminating in the Word that has come to us, in and through Jesus Christ, who in his whole being and life was the Word. It also comes to us in the earliest writings of the Church, which we call the New Testament. And it continues to come to us in many various ways.
This word is able to penetrate into the deepest recesses of our thoughts and feelings—”sharper than any two-edged sword”. It is “living and active”. It is not a dead word on a printed page. By it our most inmost thoughts and intentions are evaluated and judged as we make our quest for that eternal “rest” in God’s bosom.
What a pity so many Catholics (as opposed to Christians of other denominations) are almost total strangers to this Word and have never experienced its power. By and large in our liturgy and catechesis we have done very little to help our people become familiar with this indispensable tool for their life with God, with each other and with the world in which they live.
In the second part of the reading, Jesus is introduced as our “great high priest”. The author here alone calls Jesus by this title, which is a designation used by Philo for the Logos (the Word). It is the beginning of an extended discussion of the superior priesthood of Christ over and against the priesthood of the Old Testament.
Our High Priest has “passed through the heavens”. In the Old Testament, the high priest on the Day of Atonement would pass from the sight of the people into the Holy of Holies. He was the only person who had the right to enter this sacred space, and then only once a year. Now, in a similar, but much greater way, Jesus—his work of Atonement accomplished—has passed from the sight of his disciples, and ascended through the various levels of the heavens into the sanctuary of Heaven, the place where God himself dwells.
This is the first mention of “heaven” or “heavens” (in the Greek, it is plural) where, according to the Letter, Christ exercises his priestly functions in the presence of his Father. Sitting at the Father’s right hand, the closest place of honour, he belongs there no less than God himself. His single sacrifice, done once and for all, has a perfect and eternal value, never needing to be repeated. Here we find the fulfilment of our greatest hope in God.
The high priest of the Old Testament was a privileged and remote figure (as are many senior hierarchy of our own day). But in Jesus we have a High Priest who is fully able to sympathise with all our weaknesses, for he has undergone trials and temptations similar to, and even exceeding, our own. How many of us have suffered as Jesus did?
But, in one respect, he is radically different—he is totally without the slightest taint of sin. We see how Jesus dealt with temptation to sin in the paradigm of the temptations in the desert, a story encapsulating all the events by which he might have been tempted to violate the will of his Father (see Matt 4:1-11). We are reminded that Jesus our High Priest is not some remote, lofty personage, but someone who has shared intensely the experience of human living, including the weaknesses and temptations to which we are all subjected—though without sin. It is important to realise that weakness and temptation are not to be confused with sin.
Given that we have such a High Priest, we are encouraged to approach God’s throne “with boldness”. There we will find the compassion we need for our failures, and the sources of strength in our times of trial.
In our Eucharist, we continue to meet our High Priest, and indeed the celebrant who presides over the Eucharist is said to be, in a very real way, in loco Christi (in the place of Christ). By our breaking together of the Eucharistic bread, we express our deepest desire to be united with the self-giving sacrifice of our High Priest, a union that is manifested in the way we live out the Gospel message in our daily lives.
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Saturday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Mark 2:13-17
Jesus certainly chose some very strange people to be his followers. Levi was a tax collector, one of a much despised group of people. The Romans did not collect taxes themselves from their subject people. Instead, a local person would pay a lump sum or deposit to the Romans to be designated a publican (tax collector) for a particular area. Along with the job, publicans were given the right to recoup their initial deposit from the taxes they collected. Since they also wanted to make a profit, this laid the system open to widespread abuse and corruption. Tax collectors were regarded as traitors to their own people in collecting taxes for Rome, the hated colonial power. They and their families were social outcasts. No self-respecting and observant Jew would have anything to do with such people.
Yet, here is Jesus offering one such person an invitation, “Follow me”. We need to know that Jesus never goes by stereotypes. Nor does he judge people by their past behaviour. He is only interested in what they can be in the now and in the future. There and then, Levi drops everything and goes after Jesus. That is what following Jesus means. It is what Peter and Andrew, and James and John had also done.
Later, when Jesus is dining at Levi’s house, several known sinners and tax collectors are at table with Jesus and his disciples. In some translations of the Bible, Jesus is said to be dining in “his” house, which is (deliberately?) ambiguous. Is it the house of Levi or the house of Jesus? In either case, it is very meaningful—Jesus eats in a sinner’s house, or he invites a sinner to eat in his house. Perhaps they are celebrating Levi’s becoming a follower. And who else could Levi have invited if not the only people who would mix with him—other tax collectors and outcasts? But in addition, the Gospel says that:
…many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many [tax collectors and their like] who followed him.
This is a real source of scandal for the scribes and Pharisees. If Jesus really was a Rabbi, he would have had nothing to do with such people. To sit down and eat with such ‘unclean’ people was to be contaminated oneself. Jesus replies:
Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.
As we have already seen, Jesus’ whole mission is one of salvation and redemption of restoring people to wholeness. And how is he to help sinners change unless he is in direct contact with them? By being with sinners, Jesus is not approving or condoning or turning a blind eye to their behaviour. He describes them as “sick”; they are in need of healing and rehabilitation. This can only be done by reaching out to them.
Of course, one can ask if those judging Jesus were not also sick and in need of healing themselves. The difference was that the ‘sinners’ approached Jesus, while the Pharisees could not see or acknowledge their particular kind of sin and consequent need of healing.
Perhaps our Church should look more closely at this passage. So much of our Church work involves serving the already converted or the semi-converted. We are often not present where people are most in need of hearing the gospel message. We tend to side with the Pharisees and feel we should keep away from the ‘sinful’ and the ‘immoral’. We also need to learn the ways by which the gospel message and the gospel vision can most effectively be communicated to those who have lost touch with God and the meaning of life.
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Friday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Hebrews 4:1-5,11
We read today of the “rest” which only God can give. The symbol of “rest” is seen now at a deeper dimension. The promise given to the Israelites is a foreshadowing of that given to Christians, and it is “good news”. Because the Promised Land was seen as the place of rest that God provided for his people, it was a share in his own rest, which he enjoyed after he had finished his creative work (Gen 2:2). The author now relates this meaning of God’s rest to Psalm 95 (in yesterday’s liturgy).
The reading begins with the advice that, while the opportunity to avail of God’s “rest” is present, the Hebrews should avail of it. The implication is that the Israelites in the desert had failed to use the opportunity when they had it (see yesterday’s reading).
The comparison in the current reading is between the Israelites and the Christians. The Israelites, who doubted the word of God, did not enter a place of rest which, for them, was the Promised Land. But God’s promise cannot remain unfulfilled, so it now applies to Christians, invited to enter into a very different Promised Land of unalterable and unending happiness.
If we are to enjoy the “rest” that God wishes us to have, we must open our hearts to God’s call and God’s message. The “good news” (Greek, euangelion; Latin, evangelium) has been coming to us just as it has been coming to God’s people for generations. In the past, however, many did not benefit because, as we saw in yesterday’s reading, they had closed their ears to the message.
However, those who really put their trust in the message—in both their hearts and in their way of life—will enter that “rest”. They are unlike those others of whom God said:
As in my anger I swore,
‘They shall not enter my rest’…
The author now extends the limited meaning of “rest” in Psalm 95 to the “rest” that Genesis speaks of God enjoying at the end of the six days of Creation. And that “rest” has been a reality ever since. And we need to remember that it is God’s “rest” we are speaking about, not ours.
It is for the Hebrew Christians then, while they have the opportunity, to enter that “rest” and not find it closed off because of their refusal to believe—that is, to believe fully in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Our goal in life, too, is to experience that eternal place of rest face to face with our loving God. And the warning in this reading is totally appropriate for us too. If we want to experience that future “rest”, we need to be always united with our God in the now. He is to be found nowhere else.
There may be some kind of message here, too, for the way we spend our days and times of rest, especially our Sundays. Are they really days of ‘rest’? Do we spend the time in ways that are creative and nurturing for both spirit and body?
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Thursday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Mark 1:40-45
Today’s healing story does not actually belong to that ‘day in the life of Jesus’ on which we reflected over the past two days.
Lepers were among the most piteous of people in scriptural times. Although little was understood of the origin of the sickness, it was clearly known to be contagious, and therefore greatly feared. The only solution was to isolate the victim and not allow him or her to approach people. So, apart from the appalling physical disintegration of body and limbs, there was the social ostracism, the contempt, and the fearfulness of others which the victim suffered.
What was probably even more tragic was that many who were branded as lepers were likely suffering from some other ailment, which may not have been contagious at all—such as ulcers, cancer or other skin diseases (and perhaps some of them even psychosomatic). The signs for diagnosis are given in chapter 13 of the Book of Leviticus and, by our standards today, are rather primitive indeed. The room for a wrong diagnosis was huge. It was a question of being safe rather than sorry.
The leper in the story indicates his great faith and trust in Jesus, a necessary and sufficient condition for healing in the Gospel. He says:
If you are willing, you can make me clean.
He knows this because he has undoubtedly seen or heard about what others have experienced.
Jesus is filled with a deep sense of compassion for the man’s plight. Highlighting the emotions of Jesus is a characteristic of Mark’s Gospel and is seldom found in Matthew. What Jesus feels is compassion, not just pity. In pity we feel sorry for the person, but in compassion, we enter into the feelings of the other; we empathise with their experience. And, in doing so, Jesus does the unthinkable—he reaches out to touch the leper. This must have been a healing act in itself. The leper was by definition untouchable. Jesus says to him:
I am willing. Be made clean!
But that is not the end of the story because the man has still to be reintegrated into the community—this is the second part of the healing process. He is told to go to the priests to make the customary offering of thanksgiving. They will examine him and then pronounce him fit to reenter society.
He is also told not to say anything to anyone about it. Jesus wanted no sensationalism. But how could the man refrain from telling everybody about his wonderful experience of coming in contact with the whole-making power of Jesus? He becomes an ardent evangeliser, a spreader of good news—something we are all called to be.
What is the outcome of our experience of knowing Jesus? Why do we not have the enthusiasm of this man? It is worth noting that the experience was the result of his first having been the victim of a terrible cross. It is often in our crosses that grace appears.
Once again, Jesus goes out into the desert to avoid the enthusiastic crowds. Jesus was not interested in having ‘fans’, only genuine followers. He would not be ready until his full identity was recognised. That would only happen as he hung dying on the cross (see Mark 15:39).
Before we leave this story, we should ask who are the lepers in our society today? Sadly, there are many marginalized groups—undocumented immigrants, those who are homeless, individuals struggling with addiction to drugs, alcohol, pornography or other harmful substances or activities; indeed, we have many lepers among us. Let us examine our attitudes today and revise them as necessary.
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Thursday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Hebrews 3:7-14
As we have seen, one of the reasons for the writing of this Letter was to forestall the difficulties that some of its target audience, a community of Jewish Christians, were having in accepting Jesus Christ as Messiah and Lord. Today’s reading is a warning not to fall into the unbelief of which the Israelites were guilty in the past. A large part of the reading is taken up with a quotation from Psalm 95 (v 8-11), which is also the Responsorial Psalm for today’s Mass.
The author calls for a firm faith in Jesus. He bases his warning on the experience of Israel during the Exodus. In the Old Testament, the prophets (especially Isaiah) used the Exodus as a symbol of the return of Israel from their exile in Babylon. In the New Testament, the redemptive work of Jesus is seen as a new exodus. Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem for his suffering, death and resurrection is described as a “going up” (Luke 18:31, Matt 20:18, Mark 10:32). Relatedly, his followers are called to “go out” from a life of slavery to sin and unbelief.
So the author quotes from Psalm 95, which deals with a time during the long Exodus journey through the desert where the people were guilty of hardness of heart and refusing to trust in God’s care for them, even “though they had seen my works for forty years”. The story is told in Exodus 17 and in another form in Numbers 20. The incident took place at Massah and Meribah. ‘Massah’ means ‘place of testing’ and ‘Meribah’ means ‘place of quarreling or rebellion’.
The incident arose when the Israelites found themselves in a place where there was no water. They began to complain and abuse Moses for bringing them to such a place where there was only the prospect of dying of hunger and thirst. In complaining against Moses, they were also, in effect, complaining against God. Although angry with the people for their lack of trust, Yahweh tells Moses to strike a rock and water comes out from it. In the version of the story in Numbers, the focus is on Moses himself. He struck the rock not once but twice and this was taken as a lack of faith on his part. He was punished by dying before his people reached the Promised Land.
The readers of this Letter would have been very familiar with this story and with the Psalm; the implication is that, if they continue in their unbelief, a similar fate awaits them.
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness.
The word used, ‘rebellion’, is actually a Greek translation of the place name—‘Meribah’; ‘testing’ translates the Hebrew name for ‘Massah’. As we read, the event took place at Massah and Meribah.
And, because of their behaviour, “They will not enter my rest.” In the original psalm, this referred to Canaan as Israel’s final resting place after their long trek. The ‘rest’, into which Israel was to enter, was only a foreshadowing of that rest to which Christians are called. In tomorrow’s reading, we will see the deeper understanding of that ‘rest’.
In the final sentences, the author turns directly to the Hebrew Christians and warns them against similar forms of unbelief and turning away from the “living” God. To call God “living” means that he reveals himself in his works. Instead, they are to be an encouragement to each other “as long as it is called ‘Today'”, so that none of them may be deceived by the allure of actions which are, in fact, sinful and wrong. “Today” indicates that it is still the day of God’s grace and an opportunity to express our trust in God. It will not last forever. The day of reckoning will come and then it will be too late. God is to be found, loved and served in the now.
In a final lovely remark, the author reminds them that they have become “partners of Christ”, and he begs them to hold on to the strong faith they had at the beginning of their conversion.
The reading touches on three periods: the rebellion of the Israelites against Moses and Yahweh in the desert, the weakening faith of the Jewish Christians to whom the sermon was delivered and, finally, our own experience now. The advice of the reading is as relevant to us Christians today as it was to the Hebrews for whom it was written.
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Wednesday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Mark 1:29-39
We continue following a day in the public life of Jesus. It was still the Sabbath and, after the synagogue service, Jesus now goes to the house of his two disciples, Simon and Andrew, in Capernaum. Remember that, as it was the Sabbath, people could not go very far or do anything which could be labelled ‘work’.
In the house, Jesus finds Peter’s mother-in-law confined to bed because of a fever. When he is told about it, he immediately goes to see her, takes her by the hand, lifts her up and heals her. Immediately, she gets up and begins to serve them. This is not simply because that is the role of a woman in the home. Rather, it is a way of saying that it is the role of any Christian—man or woman—to serve. Healing is not just to make one well, but to enable one to become again an active, serving member of the community.
In the evening, once the Sabbath was over, people were free to move around. So large numbers come seeking out Jesus to be healed of their sicknesses and to be freed from the power of evil spirits:
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed by demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door.
That is, they were at the door of the house where Jesus was. Many times we will see a reference to the ‘house’ where Jesus is. It seems to be a symbol of the place where Jesus is gathered with those who are close to him, a symbol of a Christian community or of the Church. When the poor and the sick and ‘un-free’ no longer come to the doors of our community seeking healing and wholeness, we need to reflect on the quality of our Christian witness.
The following morning, Jesus leaves and goes to the hills to be alone and to pray. His disciples find him and say:
Everyone is searching for you.
Although there are many demands being made on him by the people of Capernaum, Jesus:
- needs time for himself to renew his spiritual energy and be in contact with his Father, and
- has to think of the needs of other people as well.
Jesus may have been the Son of God, but in his humanity could only be in one place at a time. And during those three years of public life, he really only reached a small number of people. To reach the rest, he needed, and still needs our help.
When Jesus returns from his prayer, he does not go back to Capernaum, although there were certainly more people to be healed and helped there. Instead he went on to synagogues all over Galilee, proclaiming his message of the Kingdom, and making it a reality by healing the sick and liberating those controlled by evil forces.
This scene brings up the importance for us of availability. We do need to be available to all those who are in genuine need. At the same time, there is what we might call the ‘poverty of availability’. No matter how generous and self-giving we are, we can only give so much. We need to find a balance between people’s needs and our limited resources. We do not help people by working ourselves to the point of ‘burnout’. We also need ‘quality time’ to be with God, to pray, and to reflect on our priorities. Jesus gives us an excellent example here.
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Wednesday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Hebrews 2:14-18
The readings from Hebrews continue to emphasise the reality of the Incarnation and Christ’s total solidarity with peoples everywhere. Jesus shares with us the same “blood and flesh”. In this way, as one of us, he could offer his life and death to set us free from the power of death, namely the Devil. It is the power of evil which brings real death to people, a death that separates us forever from the love of God. By his own physical death and resurrection, Jesus liberated us from the fear of that death from which there is no escape. That death comes when, through our self-distancing from God, we are caught in a world without life or love.
The Son, in his humanity, did not identify with the angels:
For it is clear that he did not come to help angels but the descendants of Abraham.
Rather, he took his descent from Abraham as did all his fellow-Jews (and remember that this letter was being written for Christians who were Jews):
Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest…to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.
There is one area, of course, in which he is unlike us—Jesus was totally free of doing evil or wrong in any form. It was precisely because of this that, while in every other respect one of us, he could be our intercessory priest and effectively plead with the Father on our behalf. It was only as one of us, though without sin, that he could offer a priestly sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation for all our sin.
And are we surprised at the next sentence?
Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
When did Jesus become subject to temptation? We know that, after his baptism, he was tempted by the Evil One in the desert, although these temptations seem to be rather symbols of real testings later on. For instance, after the feeding of the 5,000, the people wanted to make Jesus king, when the whole world would have been at this feet. He fled to the hills to pray to his Father.
At other times, he was challenged to perform signs and miracles so that people would believe in him (corresponding to jumping down from the top of the Temple and not being hurt). And, most of all, during his Passion, Jesus was sorely tempted when he was overcome with such fear that he sweated blood and begged his Father that he not have to endure this Passion. There is even the hint of threatening despair as he hangs on the Cross and cries out:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
(Mark 15:33; Matt 27:46)
But this is immediately followed by words of total acceptance of the Father’s will:
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46)
Because of these experiences, which Jesus could only have had because he totally shared our human condition, he could empathise with the pain and sufferings which we also have to undergo. He continues to empathise with us and, even in our greatest pain, he is not far away, and his love is not far away.
Again, the author of the letter is writing this to show his readers that a suffering and dying Messiah, far from being a contradiction, is the stunning manifestation of the extent of God’s love for us, and that Jesus was indeed the Son of the Father. Finally, it is precisely because of his humanity that he both suffered as we do, but also could be the effective intercessor on our behalf.
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Tuesday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Mark 1:21-28
Today’s passage is the first part of a day in the life of Jesus in which he carries out the main activities of his mission—teaching and healing. He goes to Capernaum, the centre of much of his work, on a Sabbath day and like every observant Jew, goes to the synagogue. And, like any Jew who wishes to do so, he addresses the congregation.
He begins to teach the people. Much of Jesus’ work will consist of teaching and communicating his message and his vision of life. People are deeply impressed because, unlike the scribes, he speaks with authority. The scribes could only interpret or give the meaning of the Scripture. Jesus spoke in his own right. Jesus speaks in the best tradition of the great prophets. But there is more. Jesus’ authority is empowering and liberating; it is not oppressive or subjugating. He will say in John’s Gospel:
…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. (John 8:32)
Right there in the synagogue was a man possessed by an “unclean” spirit. It was called ‘unclean’ because of its basic resistance to the holiness of God. This was a world where many unexplained symptoms in people were attributed to evil powers and were often believed to be the punishment for sinful behaviour. The spirit resented the presence of Jesus and said:
I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
It was believed that, by giving a hostile spirit its exact name, one could have power over him. But Jesus silences the evil spirit and tells it to come out of the man, who experiences a kind of fit and cries out.
Again the people are amazed at the power and authority of this man Jesus. He has new teaching and can give orders to evil spirits. The question is being asked: “Just who is this man?” This question is the underlying theme of the first half of Mark’s Gospel.
It for us to submit ourselves to the same empowering authority of Jesus, to listen to his teaching by steeping ourselves in his Gospel message and experiencing his healing and liberation in our lives.
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Tuesday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Hebrews 2:5-12
Today we continue the discussion about the nature of Jesus. It seems clear that those to whom the sermon is addressed are having problems squaring the humanity and the suffering of Jesus with his position as Sovereign Lord and Son of God.
The author replies by emphasising the dignity of human beings in our world:
God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels.
Rather, he ‘subjected’ the world to ‘men’ (humans)—to one Man. The author quotes from Psalm 8 (4-5):
What are humans [Greek, anthropos] that you are mindful of them or mortals [Greek, huios anthropou] that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet. (see note.)
The psalm contrasts God’s greatness with man’s relative insignificance, but also stresses the superiority of humanity to the rest of creation, over which we were given stewardship.
Originally, the “son of man” was simply a way of speaking of humans in general but, in this context, there is clearly a reference to the Son of Man—Jesus Christ. Some believe the term, frequently used in the Gospel, comes from this psalm.
Although the human is put on a lower level than the angels, it is to humanity that governance of our world has been entrusted, “subjecting all things under their feet”. God left nothing outside humanity’s control. However:
As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them…
Some translations use “him” instead of “them”, but ‘him’ here seems ambiguous—it can refer to humanity in general, or to Jesus in glory.
The first Christians, despised and persecuted, were still waiting for the coming of God’s reign on earth. Although Christ has already entered his glory, his reign on earth has to continue until he has conquered all his enemies; then we will share in his full and final triumph.
But the Son, who in his incarnation was—with the rest of humanity—made lower than the angels, is now crowned in supreme glory and honour precisely because of his sufferings and death. It was through his undergoing this experience that salvation came to the rest of humanity, because:
…by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Christ was glorified because he suffered. His triumph seals the redeeming value of his death and guarantees unending life for us.
The all-powerful God, who is the source of all that exists, has brought many of his children to glory. He did this by making his incarnate Son, the “pioneer” of our salvation, perfect through his suffering. What seemed to the Hebrews to be a stumbling block in their acceptance of Jesus is in fact what makes him their Lord. By dying and fulfilling the will of God, Christ becomes the one perfect Saviour, responsible for the entry of human beings into the glory of God.
And it is this which brings Jesus and ourselves united together under one Father, so that Jesus, though our supreme Lord, is “not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters”. In support, the author quotes from Psalm 22:
I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. (Ps 22:22)
What the author says here is something we have long become accustomed to accepting, and yet it is indeed a deep mystery—namely, that the glory of God and our salvation should be brought about, not just by God’s Son becoming one of us, but that he should go through such terrible pain and humiliation. The enormity of this mystery is that Jesus:
Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)
This is proof of Jesus’ love—and hence his Father’s—love for us. So often, we see suffering as a punishment from God, but as is so clear in this text, very often it is in fact a source of grace. It was this the Hebrews (to whom the Letter was sent) found difficult to grasp.
With faith, we know that it was fitting for God to make Jesus “perfect through sufferings”, i.e. consecrated by obedient suffering. Because he is perfected as high priest, Jesus is then able to consecrate his people. If Jesus is able to help human beings, it is because he has become one of us; we are his “brothers and sisters”.
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Note: The pronouns are all actually masculine in the original Greek, but the word for ‘man’—anthropos—is equivalent to the Latin homo. Both of these words indicate a human person, man or woman. And so in the Nicene Creed we say of the Incarnation that Jesus ‘homo factus est’ (literally, ‘was made human’). The Latin word for a male is vir (and for a woman, mulier). The Creed is then saying that Jesus shared his humanity with both men and women.
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Monday of Week 1 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Mark 1:14-20
We now begin our readings from Mark’s Gospel and we will be following him for the next several weeks. Today’s reading follows immediately on the short accounts of Jesus’ baptism and temptations in the desert that Mark gives. It is the beginning of his public ministry. The reading consists of two main parts—a summary of Jesus’ teaching and the first response to it.
As the passage opens, we are told that John (the Baptist) has been arrested (the reason for his arrest will be given later). The word for ‘arrest’ is literally ‘handed over’, a key word which will be used later of Jesus himself, his disciples, and indeed of many others down the centuries. The term is also used in our Eucharist when the celebrant at the consecration says:
This is my Body which will be given up for you.
Our translation of ‘given up’ represents the Latin word tradetur, which literally means ‘handed over’. Jesus is daily handed over to us, or rather, he hands himself over to us and expects us to do the same for our brothers and sisters.
Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming the gospel, the good news, of God. It is summed up in the words:
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.
It is a deceptively simple statement which, in fact, is rich in meaning. One can say that the whole of the gospel message is contained in those two sentences.
The following words require comment:
- time
- kingdom
- repent
- believe in
The time is fulfilled
In the Scriptures, ‘time’ is translated using the Greek word kairos. Specifically, kairos refers to a moment when something is ripe to happen, a serendipitous moment. And that exactly describes the appearance of Jesus, an appearance which the whole of the Old Covenant has been preparing for and leading up to.
The Kingdom of God is at hand
The whole of Jesus’ message centres round the idea of the ‘Kingdom of God’. It was the coming of that Kingdom which he proclaimed; it was the core of his teaching. Because of Matthew’s use of the term “Kingdom of heaven”, there is a possibility that we think of the ‘Kingdom’ as only belonging to the life after death. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The word ‘Kingdom’ translates the Greek word basileia, an abstract noun which is better rendered as ‘kingship’ or ‘reign’. Kingdom here does not refer to a place. It points to the ruling power of God, a power based above all on love. Wherever the love of God prevails in our world we can say that the Kingdom is there. Love essentially involves other people, so the Kingdom is not a place or an action, but a complex of harmonious and interacting relationships. Jesus came to call every single person to belong to such a world.
We need to emphasise that the Kingdom and the Church, or the Kingdom and Christianity, do not coincide. The role of the Church is to be a sacrament of the Kingdom. It fulfils that role with varying degrees of success. There are Kingdom people everywhere, that is, people who base their lives on love and justice, on peace and freedom, who are not Christians at all—but they are Kingdom people, because their lives reflect the spirit of God. Mere membership in a Christian group does not guarantee one is a Kingdom person.
Repent
Here we have the basic steps needed to become fully a Kingdom person. First, we need to repent. This is the most common translation of the Greek verb for the noun metanoia. It is not a very happy rendering. ‘Repent’, for most people means being sorry for something done in the past. That is not excluded here; rather metanoia looks much more to the future. Metanoia really means a radical change in one’s thinking, in this case, about the meaning and purpose of life, and how that life is to be lived. Jesus is calling here for a radical conversion, and for us to take to heart his vision of life.
Believe in the good news
And how is that metanoia to be achieved? It will come about by our believing in the “good news”, i.e. the gospel. For many Christians, ‘belief’ means the total acceptance of the teachings of Christ as interpreted for us by the Church. But something more is asked of us here. We are asked not just to believe, but to believe in. It is one thing to believe something is true, but that belief may not affect our lives very much. In calling on us to believe in the message that the gospel brings, we are being asked for a total investment of ourselves, and not just the accepting of doctrines as true. We are being called on to live our lives and pattern them on the model of Jesus himself. Again, we will see what that entails as we go through the Gospel in coming weeks.
The second part of the reading gives us a dramatic example of some people who did just what Jesus was asking. As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, who were fishermen, casting their nets into the sea. They were doing their daily work. Jesus said to them:
Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.
There and then, they dropped their nets, their whole means of livelihood, and went after Jesus. A little further on Jesus saw two sons of Zebedee, James and John, who were mending their nets. These two Jesus also called. They promptly left their father in the boat with his hired men and followed Jesus. Later Jesus will say:
Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)
Here we have that metanoia, that radical change of life, taking place. They follow Jesus with total trust. As they go off, they have no idea where they are going or what it will entail. They believe in Jesus, putting all their trust in him. They were to meet many trials and tribulations on the way, but they never regretted the step they took. Only by following their example will we too have the same experience. The only guarantee we have is that those who do take Jesus’ call seriously, and live it to the fullest, know that they made the right choice.
Finally, we might say that this story is to be read as a kind of parable. We say this because we know that later on, the disciples will still be in contact with their families and those boats will appear several times in the Gospel story. What is being emphasised here is the total commitment to the Way and vision of Jesus, which is symbolised by the total abandoning of the boats and family members.
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