Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, January 23, 2021

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
January 23, 2021

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

The text that guided the homily is: 

• This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation God wants to have with us this Sunday. Last week we examined the type of growth in faith that is meant to happen in the life of every Christian. We did so, we can say, from the subjective perspective, from the experience of St. Andrew and St. John, passing from fascination and curiosity about Jesus, to the trust that characterizes following him as disciples, to the enthusiastic sharing of the faith that marks the apostolate. This Sunday we have a chance to examine the type of growth that is meant to characterize our Christian life from Jesus’ own perspective with the help of Jesus’ words and actions at the beginning of his public ministry. In Jesus’ inaugural 18-word homily (16 words in St. Mark’s Greek) and in his conversations with his first followers after, we see four different elements that are key for our spiritual growth. This is what Jesus had waited his entire hidden life in Nazareth to announce and do. It’s also what he, as God, had been waiting since the Fall to establish: “The time is fulfilled,” he said, “and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel!”
• Jesus announces first two essential facts: The first is, “The time is fulfilled.” Jesus proclaims an urgency. He says that the time of waiting is over. The time to act is now. The second fact is, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus declares that God’s kingdom is here. God’s presence is erupting, and the time to enter his kingdom, to share in his reign, is now. After the two facts, Jesus turns to four ways we’re supposed to respond to this reality. These are the four conditions for entering and living in his kingdom. These are the four ways we won’t waste the time God has given us but make the most of it. The first is “Repent.” The second is “Believe.” The third is “Follow.” And the fourth is “Fish.” Let’s examine each of these realities and ask ourselves whether we’ve heeded Jesus message
• The first is “repent.” In Greek, this word ismetanoete, which etymologically means a total revolution of our mind, of the way we look at things. It’s a call to conversion, to no longer think as everyone else thinks, to no longer do as everyone else does, but to put on the mind of God, to align our heart and our actions to him. It means to compare ourselves to God rather than to everyone else and to recognize we’re not yet living enough as the image and likeness of God. For some people this will mean a 180-degree turn. For others it might mean a 50-degree turn or a 10-degree turn. But all of us need this conversion and we will always need it. The Christian life is one of continual conversion, in which we literally learn how fully to “turn with” Jesus (con-vert) in all parts of our life. As he turns in prayer to the Father, we turn with him; as he turns with charity to our neighbor, we turn with him; as he turns with mercy to a family member who has sinned against him and against us, we, too turn with mercy. This call to continual metanoia means that we’re incessantly seeking to change for the better to become more and more like the Lord who calls us to that penance and renewal.

• The second word is “believe.” To believe means not just to accept somethingas true. To believe means totally to submit oneself to a reality on the basis of a trust in the one testifying to the reality. To believe means to entrust ourselves completely to Jesus and on that foundation ground our lives on what he says. Our Christian life is meant to be marked with this type of faith. Because of our trust in Jesus we believe in what he tells us about the path of happiness in the Beatitudes and we seek to align our whole lives to what he says. Because of our trust in Jesus we believe in what he reveals to us about God the Father and we ground our existence on that Father’s love and call. Because of our trust in Jesus we believe in what he says about his presence in the Eucharist, about his sending out the apostles and their successors for the forgiveness of sins in confession, about what he says about caring for others as if we were caring for him, about what he says about praying for our persecutors and even loving our enemies. To believe in him, to believe in the Gospel he enunciates and enfleshes, means truly to seek to grow in both our intellectual knowledge of the Gospel and our putting it into practice. This Sunday is the Sunday of the Word of God, a new observance created last year by Pope Francis, to help us all “grow in … intimate familiarity with the sacred Scriptures,” “appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and his people,” and “experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of his word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world.” Faith comes through hearing and we grow in faith through the gift of the word of God.

• The third word is “follow me” or “Come after me.” Jesus says those words to Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John in the Gospel and they immediately left their nets, their boats, their fish, their employees and their families to follow him. They were open to the type of revolution in the way they looked at their life that is contained in Jesus’ word repent and they believed in Jesus already enough to leave everything behind on a dime to base their entire life on his word calling them to follow him. Likewise for us it’s not enough to repent and to believe, because the Lord Jesus always calls us to follow him in faith, turning back on other things. The Christian life features this type of discipleship, in which we focus on following the Lord Jesus, rather than leading him and calling the shots. It means following him into dark valleys and up steep mountains, following him up close on the Way of the Cross all the way to heaven.
• And the fourth word is “fish.” Jesus says in the Gospel that if we follow him, “I will make you fishers of men.” He will form us to be apostles, to spread the faith, to draw others to him with the same message, that the time is now, that the door to the Kingdom of God is open, and they’ll enter it through repentance, faith, discipleship and apostolate.
• Peter, Andrew, James, John, and so many others have gone through this pattern of Christian and are triumphantly with the Lord. Now it’s our turn. In the fullness of time, right now, the Lord has called us to conversion and faith and has commissioned us to be his followers and fishermen today. In the midst of a broken country that needs the light of the Gospel now as much as ever, we’re called to live and announce the reality that Christ the King and his kingdom are at hand, that he’s calling us to a new life, and showing us the way. This is a way of truth rather than fake news, a way of forgiveness rather than grudges, a way of faith rather than cynicism, a way of life rather than abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty and so many senseless homicides. Let us seize that kingdom and help others to do so.

The Gospel for the Mass on which the homily was given is: 

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