Third Sunday in Ordinary Time / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The Book of Isaiah supplies the first reading at Mass this weekend. It offers us a powerful lesson.
When this part of Isaiah was written, God’s people were skating on thin ice. They still had their independence, at least after a fashion. Hebrew kings still reigned in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The religious, social and political structures all still gave lip service to the ancient religion and to the holy covenant between God and the chosen people.
Everything, however, was at risk because devotion to the covenant and obedience to God’s law were at a low ebb. Isaiah boldly warned that disaster was just around the corner. But, he said, the people could be rescued if they returned to religious faithfulness and obeyed God, as the prophets had taught. They had this potential, this ability, within themselves.
They did not sin because they were helpless in the face of temptation. Rather, they were weak because they ignored God. If they were determined, God’s grace could make them strong and virtuous.
For its second reading, the Church has selected a section from St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians.
Paul obviously loved the Christians of Corinth. He yearned to see them saintly and eternally with the Lord. But, just as obviously, they troubled him because they seemed so attracted to the many vices of their great, worldly and wealthy city. They seemed to be vulnerable to the feelings of competitiveness and insecurity that vex all humans if not checked.
Never willing to accept passivity or indifference, he loudly called the Christians in Corinth to be true to Christ.
He taught a basic message. Earthly reward will pass, and more quickly than many might realize. Earthly wisdom is unreliable. True wisdom is to understand the meaning of the cross. This understanding requires grace, available only to those who earnestly follow the Lord.
St. Matthew’s Gospel supplies the last reading. It is situated in Capernaum, the fishing village located at the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is there, having left Nazareth. His public ministry has begun.
As a center of commerce, albeit a modest one, Capernaum saw people come and go. Jesus used this coincidence as an opportunity to encounter many people. He called them to fidelity to God. He repeated for them the admonitions of the ancient Hebrew prophets.
Jesus met in this place Andrew and his brother Simon, whom Jesus renamed Peter. These brothers became the first of the Apostles in the sequence of calling. In time, Christianity was to grow from and build upon the Apostles.
It is interesting that the Gospels, such as the case in this reading, refer to these Apostles so specifically by giving their names. The Gospel leaves no doubt whatsoever about their identity since it was vital in the early Church that the teachings of the genuine Apostles be known and be kept intact.
Reflection
These readings remind us both of how blind we humans can be and of how powerful we can be.
In the first reading, Isaiah criticized the people for their religious listlessness, but he reminded them that, if they wished, they could reverse their wayward paths.
God would supply the insight and the strength, if requested.
The same message was in the second reading. St. Paul boldly denounced the Corinthians’ sins and quarrels, calling them to genuine conversion, insisting that they could withstand temptation.
While we are sinners, we can break away from sin by willfully turning to God and by allowing divine grace to empower us. The impulse to sin, while real, is no match for God and the power of his grace working in our lives.
The teachings of the Apostles guide us to our own empowerment given us by the Lord if we honestly seek it. †