Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Contributed by Father Frank X. Reitzel, C.R.

Father Frank was ordained June 11, 1949. His Resurrectionist ministries have included teaching at St. Jerome’s High School in Kitchener, Scollard Hall, North Bay, Resurrection College, Kitchener, and St. Mary’s College in Kentucky. Father Frank was also active in Teaching and Pastoral Work at the University of Calgary and the University ofWestern Ontario. After serving as pastor at St. Francis Parish in Kitchener and St. Patrick’s Parish in Bermuda, Father Frank retired to the Manor in Waterloo in 2001. He continues to do ministry on requests from parishes

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

January 18th, 2015

GATHERING TIME(10-15 minutes)

Introduction to the Word:

EPIPHANY means a showing forth. It is a manifestation of the extraordinary in the ordinary places and events of daily life. The extraordinary comes disguised in the dress of everyday life. Samuel hears the Lord call him in a familiar voice; the glory of God becomes visible in our very bodies; a man from Nazareth is the definitive locus of the Divine.

The presence of the extraordinary in the ordinary occurs throughout the Christmas cycle and leads us to the presence of Jesus. Eventually it leads us to the Eucharist and our daily encounter with God. The promise of Christ to be present in the Eucharist does not imply that He is not present elsewhere. God can be encountered anywhere and everywhere. For John the Evangelist, epiphanies occur as bread in the desert, vines and branches, sheep and shepherds, the washing of feet and the comforting of the bereaved. For us followers of Christ, such epiphanies are rooted in and measured by the ultimate Epiphany, the Risen Christ event.

This fact for God to manifest Himself in the “ordinary” is a key to an environmental theology. All things and all persons are potentially sacred and are to be cared for with infinite tenderness. If we treat creation like a “throwaway,” we will lose this indispensable ecosystem. It is our staircase to eternity. But if we see all the rich diversity of creation as the bearer of God’s infinite Glory, then we will attend to the ecosystem so that it, and we, can flourish into eternity. This is the incarnational understanding of nature. It is an epiphany. Our readings lead us to choose. We are to see in this beautiful incident the choice of ourselves.

In the fourth Gospel, the call to discipleship comes through the witness of someone else. John the Baptist brings Andrew and another unnamed disciple to Jesus. (Notice that Peter is not the first follower in John's Gospel.) Andrew then brings his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. Later, Philip brings Nathaniel to Jesus. In this narrative a woman brings her townspeople to him. Today's readings show the diverse ways in which the call to discipleship can come. Young Samuel (1st reading) has a direct experience of God and, with the help of a more experienced companion, is able to understand what God is asking. In the Gospel, the call comes through the mediation of another's witness.

In whatever way the call to discipleship comes, Paul reminds us that we do not encounter the Holy as disembodied spirits. Rather, our bodies are sacred, "temples of the Holy Spirit." That Jesus took on human flesh, and that God raised him bodily, underscore the importance of the body. The spirituality focused on the body helps us avoid any exploitation of the body: in the sex trade, or overexposure in the manner of dress, or the battering of bodies with abuse or torture, or the devaluing of aging bodies. It is through our bodies that we experience godliness, and it is in them that we glorify God.

Warm-up Activity (about 8-10 minutes):

In your response to Jesus’ question “What are you looking for?”lies the unfolding story of your Christian life (i.e. vocation). Talk about your own “pursuit” of this vocation. Has it been long and arduous? Or has it been exciting and adventurous? Is it still going on? Is it perhaps a life-long process? In your small group, speak to your experience and address the question that haunts you most.

The Table of the Word

Leader:Come and see where the Lord is staying!

Lord Jesus, offered for the sake of all people,Lord, have mercy.

Christ Jesus, Teacher of all truth and the Way to life, Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Anointed ruler of the coming Kingdom,Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray

Father,You have called us by nameand you await our response. Give us attentive earsand a listening heart so that we may hear your Word today and make it our own.This we ask in Jesus’ name.Amen.

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION TIME(45 minutes)

(As Christians we believe that the WORD of God we hear proclaimed each Sunday is an empowering Word, and that God is present in the Word proclaimed. This is the Word that God wants us to hear today. The dynamic of the Small Christian Community, namely, reflecting on our life story within the context of this Word, and sharing the insights of these reflections, is such that God’s Spirit becomes present, and the gifts of the Spirit are experienced as empowering and life giving. Because it is a privileged time it is incumbent on us in the small group to proclaim God’s Word with due reverence, to be attentive to this proclamation, and respectful of the communal interaction).

FIRST READING (1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19)

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Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” Samuel ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call: lie down again.”So he went and lay down.The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son: lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down: and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.

The Word of the Lord.Thanks be to God.

SECOND READING(1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20)

Brothers and sisters: The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

The Word of the Lord.Thanks be to God.

GOSPEL (John 1:35-42)

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John.Glory to you, O Lord.

John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated the Christ). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

The Gospel of the Lord.Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

GroupActivity:ThisactivityisamodificationoftheAfricanModelforscripturereflection.Thegroupmembersareinvitedtoscanbrieflythethreereadingsoftheday,lookingforawordorphrasethat“touchesyou”insomefashion.Thenidentifyforyourgroupthewordorphraseandaddacommentstatingwhyyouchoseit.Notethatthereisnodialoguehere.Eachpersonsimplystateshis/herthought,wordorphrase,addingaverybriefcommentastowhyitwaschosen.Listening for the Lord’s call is a spiritual art, and like any talent, needs to be developed with training and patience. Discerning one voice from another (i.e. self? Or parent? Or God?) requires time and patience. It requires a conviction of the presence of the Lord, as well as a dialogue with the Holy Spirit. This listening skill also requires a determined effort to listen to God’s voice in all our encounters especially through the sick, the elderly, the lonely, the abandoned, the abused.

COMMENTARY:

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The word discipleship has been more a Protestant word than a Catholic one, observes the Catholic theologian Monika Hellwig. But this, she says, is unfortunate because it is a good word. It has to do with listening and learning, with acquaintance and apprenticeship, and therefore with following a master with whom one is on intimate terms (cf. With Gladness their Escort, 1987). Today we have three stories about discipleship, and about the intimacy of the bond that is implied in it.

The first reading is a simple and moving story about discipleship from the First Book of Samuel. It describes how a vocation (including a Christian vocation) unfolds: God always takes the initiative. The call, as with young Samuel, is felt as a kind of mysterious urging coming from the depths of the heart. Samuel can hear the call because of his welcoming disposition: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Samuel’s words “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” also express a fundamental attitude of the soul which is really intent on communicating with God, knowing, through faith, that God wants to communicate with us. Much in the manner of a young mother straining to hear the first “words” of her infant child, we need to hone our listening skills to better hear God’s voice in all our daily encounters.

We need to be aware of his presence no matter where we find ourselves, and to feel the stirrings of his Spirit in our every undertaking. In all of life’s situations, Samuel remains a model for the disciple of Jesus (ibid.).

The author of today’s Gospel continues the same theme, laying out in just a few dramatic lines the scene depicting the progress of Christian discipleship, a message that Mark and Matthew and Luke needed a whole Gospel to describe. Two of John the Baptist’s disciples respond to his prompting as he points out the Messiah with “Behold the Lamb of God.” Immediately they take their leave of him and follow Jesus. Jesus eventually sees them, turns and asks simply “What are you looking for?” This is the same question, maintains Dennis Hamm S.J. (1998), that Jesus asks of every one of us who wants to take him seriously: What are you really looking for in this brief life?

The disciples’ response—“Where are you staying?”—is not so much seeking information about Jesus’ physical dwelling place as it is asking something like “Where do you hang out? Where can we find you?”Understood this way, Jesus’ invitation and response, “Come, and you will see,” takes on a depth of meaning surely intended by the author, for the deepest kind of seeing is seeing with the eyes of faith.What do you want?Where do you live?Come and see!

In this brief exchange lies the unfolding story of our Christian lives, a story that will be defined by the values and choices we make even as we live out this very day.

(Allow about 5 – 10 minutes for the participants to react to the Commentaryto identify a newly discovered insight or an idea newly described.)

Questions for Reflection and Discussion:

1.“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:19)

a.Do these urgings stop as you get older, or do they continue during life’s journey? How important is it that you respect them and listen to these urges?

b.Do you think that every person has a predetermined vocation known only by God and that one mustfollow it? Share your views.

c.What do you consider to be the answer to the “vocation problem” in the Church?

d.Why do young people seem hesitant to respond to the call of Christ?

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2.“…Do you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?”(1 Corinthians 6:17)

a.Is this statement true just for Christians or are other religions included, too? Who and why?

b.What evidence or experience do you have that attests to the fact that a person is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Share your observations and beliefs.

c.Commercial media tell us again and again that the human body is little more than a commodity to be bought and sold.

i.In keeping with our Epiphany theme, do you believe your body is a holy place where you and God meet? Share your opinions.

ii.Relative to the important concept of “self worth,” what are some of the current commercial messages that you find especially distasteful? Share your observations.

3.“What are you looking for? (1 John 1:36)

When we read this question in its Gospel context it seems to hold worlds of meaning.It expresses a depth of longing to be close to him, to be allowed to stay there all day,the “rest of the day.” For your group to get into this question you are invited to try this:

Put yourselves into the Gospel story along with the other disciples present. After a brief pause, take turns responding as best you can to this question from the context of your own life storiesand situations. This is a bit of a challenge but is well worth the effort.So, what are you looking for?

4.“Look, here is the Lamb of God.”With these words, the two disciples took off immediately to follow Jesus.What are some factors that have influenced your attraction to Jesus?

a.Being around a few people whose person and presence I have come to value.

b.My own yearning and restlessness.

c.In regard tomy faith I keep getting this sense that there is more than what I am presently experiencing.

d.So many of my friends are seriously ill; some have already died.

CARING-PRAYING TIME:(15-20 minutes)

Word for the Week:“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel:18)

Suggestion for the week:An exercise in listening for the Lord’s call.

Listening for the Lord’s call is a spiritual art, and like any talent, needs to be developed with training and patience. Discerning one voice from another (i.e. self? Or parent? Or God?) requires time and patience. It requires a conviction of the presence of the Lord, as well as a dialogue with the Holy Spirit. This listening skill also requires a determined effort to listen to God’s voice in all our encounters especially through the sick, the elderly, the lonely, the abandoned, the abused.

Activity:

Take five minutes at the end of the day this week to review the many encounters you engaged in that day. Try to discern which of these might have represented the voice of the Lord.

A clue: the situations we engage in that are most frustrating for us are more than likely those connected with God’s presence and Spirit and demand our special attention.

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Intercessions:(Response: Lord, help us to seek and find you.)

Leader: Gathered at prayer in the temple of the Lord, let us offer our intercession to the God who has called us by name.

That the church may listen attentively to the voice of the Lord and respond with courage and resourcefulness in God’s service, we pray…

That Pope Francis, called to exercise the ministry of Peter in God’s church, may inspire by his own example our eager and ready response to Christ’s call, we pray…

That the leaders of nations may hear in the voices of their people God’s own voice summoning the world to a future of justice and peace, we pray…

That those who are seeking meaning and purpose for their lives may “come and see,” and find in Christ the Teacher for whom they search, we pray…

That the married couplesof ourcommunity may be blessed by God with deepening love and steadfast fidelity, we pray…

Thateducatorsmay inspire ouryoung people to embrace the beauty of chastity and develop relationships marked by mutual respect, we pray…

That we who have heard the good news and followed Jesus may find others who are in search of truth and bring them to Jesus, we pray…