THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A - 2023

FIRST READING  Isaiah  8,23-9,3

      The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali  are situated around the Sea of Galilee  in the Northern Kingdom, Israel, the Southern Kingdom was Judah. 

      The people of Israel had been conquered and taken in exile by a foreign king. 

      Although there were always rivalries between the two kingdoms,   the people in Judah were worried about their brothers and sisters of the Kingdom of Israel. 

      In this oracle the prophet announces that a great light will appear in the region of darkness

      He describes the feelings of the people who enjoy that great light with beautiful images:

o   Abundant joy like the joy of the harvest, or when people won the war

o   The yoke that oppresses them will be destroyed. 

o   The rode of the taskmaster will also be destroyed, as it happened in the days of Midian 

o   The joy we experience when we feel the presence of the Lord in our life.

      This will be the mission of the future Messiah, future king, that God promised to David.  He will make of the two peoples: Israel and Gentiles one people. 

      This becomes true in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, and the Messiah who by his cross and resurrection makes of the two peoples one.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Ps 27,1. 4. 13-14

R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation

 

Psalm 27 has a great similarity to psalm 23. It is a psalm of great literary beauty.  It has an especial spiritual meaning. It is a hymn that invites us to trust in God.  We read this psalm also at funeral masses.

      In the biblical tradition “light” is related to “life” and to “ happiness”. 

      If God is my refuge, whom should I fear? Of whom should I be afraid? 

      Trust, faith, is the main theme of this psalm.  

      The psalmist wants to live in the house of God all the days of his life.  House of God may mean the Temple of Jerusalem or the Temple of the New Jerusalem, Heaven.  

      To contemplate the beauty of God may mean “to see God.”  

      The psalmist is convinced that he will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  

      He invites us to wait for the Lord with courage.

      Do I wait for the Lord? 

SECOND READING: FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS   1,10-13.17

ü  Paul has written several letters to the Community in Corinth. All the fragments from these letters  have been put together in the two letters that we know now.    

ü  The Community of Corinth had accepted faith with enthusiasm, but sometimes without enough depth, they mixed with the Christian faith some of their former pagan practices

ü  Paul loved this community very much, he wrote the letters to help them understand and live the Christian message, the Gospel, he visited them several times.

ü  But the community of Corinth did not always love and respect Paul. They did not recognize him as an apostle like the others, they did not consider him a good preacher…  

ü  In next Sunday’s Reading

o   Paul asks the community to remain united and not fight against each other. 

o   Not to be proud of having been baptized by Apollo or Paul ….. 

o   Because we all belong to Christ, this is our glory 

o   Who has been crucified for us? Christ and nobody else.  

o   Paul is happy that he has not baptized anyone of them, because he had not been sent to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wordy wisdom lest the cross of Christ be rendered void of its meaning.  

GOSPEL   MATTHEW 4,12-23

§  In the first part of this gospel reading, we are told that Jesus leaves Judea to return to Galilee when he learns that John has been arrested. He does not remain in Nazareth but goes to Capernaum the town of Peter and Andrew.

§  When Jesus was a child he had to move to another place for safety, now when he is adult he will continue to move to safer places several times, until his hour will come.      

§  The gospel repeats what we have read in the first reading.  

§  After that, the gospel tells us that Jesus begins to proclaim the kingdom, inviting to change one’s life. 

§  His preaching is very different from John’s preaching. It is an invitation, not a command. Jesus   will bend over every human suffering; he will touch the sick to let them experience the closeness of God.  

§  He calls his first disciples. The call to the disciples is presented differently in the four gospels. Here Matthew presents Jesus walking around the Sea of Galilee and he calls some fishermen to follow him.  

§  Peter and Andrew, his brother, have a boat, probably belonging to the family business; James and John, his brother,  are working with their father Zebedee. When Jesus calls them they leave everything behind to follow Jesus .

§  In a future time He will send them to do his same mission.

§  What words did Jesus use to call them, how did he look at those men that they were so ready to follow him?   

§  The last part of this gospel gives a picture of the activity of Jesus in Galilee. 

o   He teaches in the synagogues in the different villages. 

o   He proclaims the Kingdom and heals those who are affected by different sicknesses and sufferings.   

o   Jesus, at the moment of his baptism, heard the voice of the Father telling him that he was his beloved Son. He is tempted in the desert where he has gone to prepare himself for the mission the Father has given to him.

o   Now Jesus starts to fulfill his mission among us.   

 

CLARETIAN CORNER

MARIA ANTONIA PARÍS A SAN ANTONIO MARÍA CLARET

 

… We already figured how happy V.E.I. (your most illustrious Excellency) is to have been wounded for teaching the holy law of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I and all these your daughters want to participate in the great prize that the Lord will give to V.E.I. for it in eternal life, because V.E.I. will remember that in a sermon you told us that we would participate in the spoils. O how happy we will be if we would have the happy fortune to seal our lives by shedding all our blood in confirmation of the holy law of the Lord! No doubt our Blessed Mother wanted to give V.E.I. this decoration on the eve of her feast (February 2) and to her we owe the happy restoration of V.E.I. for what we thank the Lord, desiring to have as soon as possible the pleasure of receiving  the paternal blessing of V.E.I.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PARÍS, María Antonia. Epistolario. 1993.

DMELLO, John. Gospel Confronts Life. 2016.

EQUIPO BÍBLICO VERBO. Un tesoro escondido. Encuentros con el Evangelio. Ciclo A. 2022.

PAGOLA, José Antonio. El camino abierto por Jesús. Mateo. 2012.

BARKER, John R. OFM and BELLINGER, Karla J. Living the Word. Year A. 2019.