Skip to main content

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

New beginnings.  This is the promise of the New Year.  We bid farewell to the troubles of the previous year, and approach the new year in front of us fresh with enthusiasm and hope.  Our new year’s resolutions are a common expression of those new beginnings.  As we enter into Ordinary Time we appropriately focus on this idea of new beginnings with our readings for this Sunday…


Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
John 2:1-11

Our first reading is from Third, or Trito-Isaiah.  Here the followers of the original prophet Isaiah foretell of a new beginning for the people of Israel.  Their Exile in Babylon is over!  Israel’s sins have been expiated and her vindication will become a beacon to all the other nations.  Where God was once someone to be feared (as in the earlier Mosaic texts), He now seems giddy with delight over his people, so much so he refers to the people as his bridegroom.  Isaiah uses the marriage covenant as a way to describe this renewed relationship between God and his people.  A new beginning where the people of God will show the world God’s glory.  This glory of the Lord is reflected in our Psalm as we sing “Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.”  By turning back to the Lord, he has restored them as a nation.

Our gospel also speaks of a new beginning with the story of the wedding at Cana.  In a story unique to John’s Gospel, Jesus and his newly gathered disciples attend a wedding in Cana (another small town just a few miles north of Nazareth).  While the wedding itself is representative of a new beginning (for the couple being married), this story also marks a new beginning for Jesus… marking the beginning of his ministry with his first public miracle.  During the celebration Mary sees an opportunity for Jesus to take action when the wine begins to run out.  Though Jesus appears to be dismissive of Mary, he follows through by instructing the servers to fill the jugs with water and bring them to the head waiter.  Once they reach the head waiter, the water has become fine wine, leading his disciples to believe in him.

As we have now entered into Ordinary Time, our second reading does not necessarily correlate to our other readings.  Instead, we use this time to embark on an extended study of the Epistles, in this case, Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  This week we hear a passage from chapter 12 (halfway through the letter) where Paul is explaining how we all have different gifts, but that all those gifts are from the same Spirit.  We cannot be all things to all people.  Instead, the Spirit has gifted each of us with certain talents and abilities, which in turn can be used to the service of the entire community.  For many of the new Christians in Corinth, this concept of living in “community” is a new idea… that we must learn to lean on each other in our service to the Gospel, and in turn, use those gifts in service to the community.  So in a way, it’s a new beginning for them as well.

Final Thoughts:
The Christian life is filled with new beginnings.  Our baptism is a new beginning… a rebirth into the community of the Church.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a new beginning, allowing us to put past sins behind us proceed with a fresh start.  Our readings this week also use a lot of marriage imagery.  Not only does this show us they type of relationship God is looking for with his people, but marriage itself is a new beginning for the couple embarking on their new vocation.  As we embark on this year of mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis, we are reminded how we need to be a reflection of God’s great mercy here on Earth.  We need to be the facilitators of new beginnings.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle C

“In the beginning there was the Word…”  These are the dramatic opening lines from the Gospel according to John, and though we will not be reading from John’s Gospel this Sunday, these words ring true for our readings for this 3rd Sunday of Ordinary time.  The people are in the midst of something new, a new beginning that, as our readings will show, begin with The Word… The Word for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10 Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 15 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 (or 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27) Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21 Our first reading is from the book of the Prophet Nehemiah.  Nehemiah, along with the priest/prophet Ezra, are the architects of the Restoration of Israel.  Their great Exile in Babylon is over and through the grace of the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, Israel is free to return to their land, to rebuild the Temple and to rebuild their lives as the people of God.  In an effort to guild them in this new beginning, Nehemiah and Ezra g...

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

February 2nd is the date chosen by the Church to celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.  When a significant feast day falls on a Sunday, the Church sets aside the readings for that normal week to celebrate the feast with these special readings: The Word for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Malachi 3:1-43 Psalm 24: 7, 8, 9, 10 Hebrews 2:14-18 Luke 2:22-40 or 2:22-32 While the Catholic Church today refers to this day as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, traditionally it has also been called the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord .  Prior to the Second Vatican Council, Candlemas was a time where beeswax candles were blessed for use throughout the year, a tradition still followed in some parish communities.  Today the celebration focuses more on the prophecy of Simeon, and Pope John Paul II chose it as a time for renewal of religious vows (not to be confused...

8th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle C

As with last week’s readings, our readings for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time are usually passed over for other feast days, but since Easter is somewhat late this year, we get to finish out this stretch of Ordinary Time with some readings we rarely get to hear during Sunday Mass: The Word for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time Sirach 27:4-7 Psalm 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16 1 Corinthians 15:54-58 Luke 6:39-45 Our first reading comes from the book of Sirach, also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira, a great sage from Jerusalem who embraced the Wisdom tradition.  The work was originally finished around 175 BCE and was later translated into Greek by the author’s grandson sometime after 117 BCE during the Jewish diaspora that flourished in the later Ancient Greek Empire.  Since our earliest manuscripts for this book were found in Greek, it does not hold the same canonical status for Jews and Protestants, but more recent archeological finds have verified its Hebrew origins.  Like all Wisdo...