Ordinary Time

Jan 15 2025

A Job Nobody Wants

We can respond in different ways when someone wrongs us: we can ignore the offense, cut off the offender, announce our anger or hurt, or be equally offensive. Perhaps you have tried each of these. Jesus sets out another way for his disciples. First, go to the person and point out the failure; if that doesn’t work, take another with you; if that doesn’t work, “refer it to the church.” And if that doesn’t work, “treat the person as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.”

This last remark could sound like even Jesus put limits on what you had to do to bring a person around, especially since tax collectors were generally held in contempt and Gentiles kept at a distance. But this wasn’t so for Jesus; these were the very ones he reached out to. So, his last remark indicates that you never stop trying to win over another.

These words are part of Jesus’ fourth speech in Matthew’s Gospel, focused on life within the community of his followers. They are to be a community of reconciliation. This call to engage in fraternal correction has got to be one of the more difficult aspects of living out the way of Jesus, by loving others enough to tell them when they are committing a wrong. It’s frequently much easier to let it slide or move away from the person altogether.

Paul’s exhortation to “owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another” finds fulfillment in this difficult area of fraternal correction. Such love fulfills the law.

Consider/Discuss

How do you react when someone wrongs you?
Do you see any value in the process Jesus sets out here?
Do you accept that being a church community means correcting those who do wrong?

Responding to the Word

We may need to ask God for the courage to face those who have wronged us and tell them of their failure. We pray to the Spirit whose work is to bring about unity, strengthening the bonds of love between all disciples so that this love may extend to all creation.

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

Today’s first reading is an oracle of appointment, a personal message to the prophet himself. Ezekiel is called to be a watchman. He is entrusted with keeping watch over the entire house of Israel. He fulfills this role when he proclaims God’s words of warning, and God will hold him responsible if he does not protect the people by means of his proclamation. The wording of the oracle implies that there is still time for the people. The sinner can still be called back from sin. However, in a very real sense this all depends upon the prophet’s fidelity to his call to be watchman.

Paul tells the Christians of Rome that on the one hand they should owe nothing, while on the other hand they should owe everything, for love requires total self-giving. The debt of love is not an obligation that can be paid once for all. It is more like interest for which we are always liable. Love will take different forms, depending upon circumstances. When we truly love others, we desire only what is good for those we love. Following the teaching of Jesus, the love that Paul exhorts is to be extended to all people without exception. According to Paul, love is the fulfillment of the law.

Reconciliation within the community is such a pressing concern that its maintenance is a matter of church discipline. The Gospel reading describes the procedure to be followed in achieving it. The importance of the community in this process is apparent. First, it is the entire group of disciples, not merely its leader, that exercises disciplinary power. Second, Jesus declares that any agreement arrived at by two members of this group will be heard. He is not here talking about prayer in general, but prayer for guidance in coming to a decision that will affect the community’s well-being. Jesus promises to be present in his church if the members turn to him for guidance.

Jan 15 2025

The Cost of Closeness

The prophets often spoke bluntly, whether addressing the people or even God. Take Jeremiah today. He accuses God of seducing and overpowering him, making him speak a word that has led to his ridicule and persecution. He was even thrown down a cistern and left to die because of his preaching! Jeremiah confesses he has no choice in the matter. When he refuses to speak God’s word, he experiences a fire burning in his heart, consuming his very bones.

The cost of drawing near to the living God can take us down a path we would rather not go. Peter saw this coming when Jesus began to speak of the suffering that lay ahead, instead of being the powerful Messiah people had been waiting for, who would cast down their enemies and restore Israel to the glory days of King David. Instead, Jesus spoke about taking up the cross, losing one’s life, or, in Paul’s words to the Romans, becoming “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”

God’s plan for us is the transformation and renewal of our minds according to the pattern of God’s Son Jesus. This transformation comes about when we “offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice,” seeking to discern and do God’s will as Jesus did. Such self-offering may lead to our following Jesus on the way: finding life by losing it for the sake of others, and coming to know the living God as purifying fire, life-giving water, and nourishing food for our spirit.

Consider/Discuss

Would your reaction to Jesus’ speaking of having to go to Jerusalem be like Peter’s? Why or why not?
Can you apply Paul’s words to your life: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God”?

Responding to the Word

We can pray that we have the strength to respond courageously to Jesus’ call to be willing to lose our life for his sake. We ask to be able to discern in our daily lives the way we can “offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.”

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

Jeremiah is caught between fidelity to the vocation that is his as God’s prophet and his own natural inclinations. He was called to deliver a message of violence and destruction to his own people. It is his nation that will be racked with violence and that will face destruction, and he recoils from this responsibility. He can no longer endure the burden so he decides never again to speak in God’s name. However, like a roaring fire, the words seem to burn within him. He cannot restrain their fury. He must speak. Jeremiah is indeed a man of sorrows.

Paul appeals to the mercies of God as the basis of his admonition when he asks the Christians of Rome to offer themselves as a living sacrifice. He is calling them to a disciplined life, not a sacrificial death. He insists that they have entered into the final age of fulfillment. Saved through the blood of Christ and filled with the Spirit of God, they are being transformed into Christ. They have put aside the standards of this world in order to take on the standards of Christ and of the reign of God. This is the transformation and renewal of which Paul speaks.

Jesus predicts his own suffering, death, and resurrection and then discusses the need for the disciples to bear their own suffering. The idea of a suffering mes siah did not conform to the expectations of the people, at least not to Peter’s. He rebukes Jesus. Jesus then addresses Peter as Satan, the one who acts as an obstacle to the unfolding of God’s will. Then, turning to the other disciples, Jesus says that those who follow him must, like him, deny themselves any self-interest and self-fulfillment. Those who selfishly save themselves from sufferings lose in the arena of eschatological judgment, while those who unselfishly offer themselves are saved from this judgment. This is what following Jesus means.

Jan 15 2025

A Life-changing Question

Certain questions change lives, depending on our answer: “Do you take this person to be your husband/wife?” “Do you want this job?” “Can you forgive me?” The question Jesus asks today is one that certainly changes lives. Our response is not simply an academic exercise, a matter of knowing the right answer we learned from a book. Our answer must lead to a commitment that is to be lived out each day of our lives.

Peter’s answer certainly changed the course of his life. Jesus recognized that it was not Peter’s innate knowledge, or that of any other person, that had given Peter his response: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was the Father. And so Jesus declares that Peter will be the one to lead the other disciples and all who would come after. Simon, son of John, fisherman, husband, brother—and one who would deny he ever knew Christ!—he was to be the rock on which Jesus would build the church. His response was life-changing.

Peter’s answer was not a perfect one, as we shall see next week. Even so, Jesus accepts it as an indication that his Father is at work in those called to be with him who would continue his work. The Father chose to work in fallible human beings. We may not think of ourselves as rocks, but the future of the church depends on how well each one of us lives out the answer to this question, “Who do you say that I am?”

Consider/Discuss

Who do you say Jesus is?
Do you recognize Jesus as one who embodies the wisdom and knowledge of God?
How does your answer to Jesus’ question show up in the way you live?

Responding to the Word

We pray that our loving Father will bring us to a deeper knowledge and under standing of his Son Jesus. We ask that this understanding will lead to a deeper commitment on our part to the work of Jesus to bring about in our own day the reign of God in our world.