January 21 - Third Sunday in ordinary Time :Seek that which lasts

 

First Reading Jonah 3:1-5,10

God spared the people of Nineveh because they heeded the message God sent through Jonah.

 

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

The Lord teaches us his ways.

 

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Paul warns the Corinthians that they must act differently because the world in its present form is passing away.

 

Gospel Reading Mark 1:14-20

 

It must be noticed that the disciples are about their everyday tasks as fishermen; they are casting their net into the sea, in their boat, mending their nets. But the summons of Jesus shatters all these external signs of their settled life as successful fishermen. They leave what their peer group would have seen as signs of their success: their nets, their boas, their hired servants and their father to follow Jesus as he journeys in response to the will of his Father. Thus the disciples were able to discern what is temporal and what is eternal. Because this world is temporary and the world to come is permanent, and our permanent inheritance depends on how we live now with God’s grace, we are wise to have a detachment from the things of this world. Detachment does not mean that we don’t love our spouses, that the things that hurt us do not really hurt, that the things that make us happy don’t really give us joy, that we don’t really need physical things, and that these things do not have their own value. Detachment does mean that we see all these persons and good things—and the hardships of life—in light of eternity. Marriage, sorrows, joys, material things, and work find their real meaning in the light of Christ. No earthly good—as truly good as these can be—is our final end. No earthly evil—as truly evil as these can be—is the last word either.