The First Reading - Jonah 3:1-5, 10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, “when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.

Reflection

Nineveh is the capital city of Assyria. The Assyrians destroyed Israel in 721 B.C. It was to Nineveh that God had directed Jonah to go when he had refused and tried instead to flee to Tarshish, the farthest boundary of the world. God keeps telling Jonah to minister to the people who are enemies of Israel. God has a plan for the Assyrians which Jonah recognizes but doesn’t want to cooperate with – the Assyrians are to punish Israel for its unfaithfulness, and Jonah is asked to help. Jonah has recognized the futility of flight after his experience with the storm and the fish; all Jonah can hope for now is that the Ninevites will reject his message and receive their just reward from God’s wrath. That the Lord will repent of the punishment He threatens if the nation repents of her evil ways is the explicit teaching of Jeremiah 26:3. Nineveh has repented and God has spared them – Israel did not repent and God later used Assyria to punish them.

Adults - Has God ever called you to a job you really didn’t want to do?

Teens - How do you share your faith with others without getting discouraged? What can help when you do get discouraged?

Sunday Mass Readings and Questions

for Self-Reflection, Couples or Family Discussion

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sunday, January 24th, 2021

Kids - How can God help you when you are going through something difficult?

Responsorial- Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R.Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God. R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.Sacrifice or offering you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me.Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, “Behold I come.”R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,to do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!”R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will. Reflection

The contrite Psalmist is reaching out to the Lord, telling Him thier intent to conform with His will. Are you open to hearing the will of the Lord?

The Second Reading- 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.

Reflection - Saint Paul expresses his conviction that the last period in salvation history is running its course. The parousia of the Lord may come at any time. The Christian must live as the Lord has commanded: in prayer and watchfulness awaiting the return of his Lord. He must keep himself detached from this world which is passing away.

-What does it mean to be detached from the world?

The Holy Gospel according to Mark 1:14-20

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.

Reflection Jesus has been baptized at the Jordan river in the Judean wilderness. Now He returns to the place of His ministry – Galilee, which is generally more favorable to Jesus than Judea will be (although Jesus is rejected by the people of Nazareth and John is ordered killed by Herod 4 Antiapas of Galilee). “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” This is the same type of call we heard in our first reading. The people have strayed from their covenant relationship with God. They have followed their own ways and their own gods and as a result have suffered. If they return to God and His ways they will know His presence and love again. Notice how discipleship and repentance are tied together in Jesus’ message. As Saint Jerome said: “One who desires the kernel breaks the nut. So one who desires the joy of a holy conscience swallows down the bitterness of penance.” (Commentary on the Gospels).

Adults - Start planning to attend the Sacrament of Confession sometime during Lent. Find a good examination of conscience and prepare well to receive the graces of the Sacrament.

Teens - Why is repentance important for a disciple?

Kids - Why do you think God wants us to live by certain teachings?

LIVING THE WORD OF GOD THIS WEEK! - We Christians can indeed be the happiest people on earth, if we live according to the divine good news revealed to us through Christ. "Repent and believe in the gospel," Christ told the people of Galilee. The same call goes out from our loving Savior to each of us today: repent—change your outlook on life— and see it as God sees it to be for us, a short journey toward heaven. If we really believe in the gospel of Christ, the revelation of God's plan for our eternal happiness, our earthly troubles will look small, our trials and temptations will appear to us as they really are—a means of cooperating toward the eternal victory. Christ, the innocent victim for our salvation, has gone before us, carrying his heavy cross; can we refuse to carry the relatively lighter cross which he places on our shoulders as our means of making atonement for our own failings and for those of our fellowmen? God forbid that we should! If we have failed in the past, let us repent today and show our belief in the truth of the Christian gospel, by living as true Christians who are on their way to heaven. — Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.