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ourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 29th, 2012
FALSE PROPHETS, TRUE PROPHETS
 In Deuteronomy today we hear that God’s very words will fill the mouth of a true prophet, but a false prophet will, in a manner of speaking, put mere mortal words into God’s mouth. In Mark’s Gospel, we see Jesus teaching and healing as a true prophet, one filled with the authority of God’s own voice, the Holy One of God.
The whole history of our church is filled with both true and false prophets. But in today’s Gospel we learn that Jesus’ fame spread because he taught with authority; he wasn’t an authority because he was popular or famous. We also learn from him, in his desert temptation confrontations with Satan, that anyone can quote scripture, even against God’s purposes. And today we hear that his authority was not like that of the scribes, who held the official positions of religious authority in his day. Our work is to do our best to discern the true prophets in our midst, and to be true prophets as well. The psalmist tells us how to do this: by not hardening our hearts when God speaks. If we truly listen to God, it will be God’s very words filling our mouths.
Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.
SUNDAY’S READINGS
(January 29th, 2012)
First Reading — Moses spoke to all the people, saying: “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you” (Deuteronomy 18:15-20).
Psalm — If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Psalm 95).
Second Reading — Brothers and sisters: I should like you to be free of anxieties (1 Corinthians 7:32-35).
Gospel — The people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching (Mark 1:21-28).
The English translation of the Psalm Responses from the Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Links Courtesy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Website
( January 23rd to January 29th 2012)
Monday: 2 Sm 5:1-7, 10; Mk 3:22-30, or any readings from the Mass "For Peace and Justice," nos. 887-891
Tuesday: 2 Sm 6:12b-15, 17-19; Mk 3:31-35
Wednesday: Acts 22:3-16 or Acts 9:1-22; Mk 16:15-18
Thursday: 2 Tm 1:1-8 or Ti 1:1-5; Mk 4:21-25
Friday: 2 Sm 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17; Mk 4:26-34
Saturday: 2 Sm 12:1-7a, 10-17; Mk 4:35-41
Sunday: Dt 18:15-20; Ps 95; 1 Cor 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28
SAINTS AND SPECIAL OBSERVANCES
Monday: Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children; St. Vincent; Chinese New Year 4710
Tuesday: St. Francis de Sales
Wednesday: The Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle
Thursday: Ss. Timothy and Titus
Friday: St. Angela Merici
Saturday: St. Thomas Aquinas
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
“Ordinary” is not always a desirable adjective. Who would not be insulted to receive a thank-you note for your “ordinary birthday gift,” or “the ordinary hospitality at the dinner party”? No restaurant advertises its “ordinariness,” no car dealer seats a customer at the steering wheel and whispers, “Look how ordinary it is!” Yet here we are in “Ordinary Time.” The word carries a different meaning here: it does not mean these days are dull, boring, pedestrian, uninteresting. It means “ordinal,” or “numbered” Sundays, a season of the year when we follow the story of Jesus’ life and ministry in an ordered way, with each Sunday assigned an ordinal number.
You can amaze your friends with this example of Catholic arithmetic: the “Ordinary Sundays” begin with the last Sunday of Christmas, the Baptism of the Lord, continue until the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, and resume after a cluster of feasts following Pentecost Sunday. The numbers are calculated by counting backwards from the Solemnity of Christ the King, the Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Now you know there is nothing “ordinary” about “Ordinary Time!”
—James Field, Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co. |
