3rd Sunday OT 2021 Mark 1:14-20

Fishers of Men

Today, this Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is set aside by Pope Francis as The Sunday of the Word of God which is devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God, which highlights the gift of our sacred story in a world wooing us with a very different saga of no lasting value.

According to Alice, “Last year on this date, the Church celebrated 1600 years since the time of Saint Jerome. He was the church doctor who famously declared: ‘Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.’ “Jerome’s remarkable contribution was his Bible translation, known as the Vulgate, which he composed from manuscripts in the original languages, Hebrew and Greek. He was the rare Christian scholar of his time willing to study with rabbis to learn how to interpret these ancient texts. He was also rare in his time to include women among his students of Scripture, like Saint Paula of Rome. She became more adept with it than he was in Hebrew. Historians of her time called her a ‘genius of a woman.’ Paula was instrumental in Jerome’s work on the Vulgate, including financial support for his study.”

Pope Damasus requested from Jerome one good Latin translation because there were too many not-so-good-translations out there. Latin may be considered the language of the Church, but not the language of Jesus, which was actually Aramaic. Once Jerome finished his translation into Latin, it slowly became the language the Liturgy of the Roman Church almost replacing Greek which lingered on in the Kyrie Eleison until Vatican II when it was replaced by the vernacular.

Back to today’s gospel from Mark where we will apply the STUDY part of Pope Francis’ request from us this day. Mark begins his account of the ministry of Jesus with his initial proclamation and his call of four fishermen. His first words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Good News!” are important for understanding the story of Mark. The reader has always to question how far this initial summons is being obeyed. As for the kingdom, Jesus never defined its meaning; the reader has to work this out by listening to his teaching, particularly in the parables and watching his actions. Ultimately, Jesus himself is the Kingdom.

Jesus began his work by forming his school of discipleship. He first had to bring these four to the repentance and belief in the Good News that he required of all. To them he would reveal the mystery of the Kingdom. Their thoughts had to become the thoughts of God and not the thoughts of men. They were to follow Jesus to Jerusalem, the city of his enemies, the city of his death and resurrection.

The Jesuit formation program follows Saint Ignatius even today with his original Thirty-Day Retreat. During this retreat, the retreatant reflects on the Scriptures using their affective or feeling response to what Jesus says and does. Hopefully, the retreatant moves from just a spectator in these gospel scenes as someone watching a movie to actually being present in person, always inviting the retreatant to put themselves in the apostles’ shoes or even once in a while in Jesus’ shoes (sandals).

Each reader today is invited to identify with them also, to be with Jesus as he preached in the other towns and follow him throughout this year. Even as we listen today to the readings, we hopefully will allow our thought to become the thoughts of God. That means we need to go beyond just listening, since that is the first step. As the homilist, I can only do so much, in clarifying the readings and pointing the way in at least my understanding of message. But I rely on commentators and scholars, which are just as available to you as they are to me. I try to follow several commentators to see where the readings lead them. But in the end, I usually add my own twist to the readings, as in today’s. Notice that Jesus calls ordinary men because they will be fishers of ordinary people.

That means even you and I are called as ordinary people. At lest I don’t feel special, but I do feel called to give my own personal twist to the Good News. And today’s reading reminds me that Jesus’ church is from the bottom up, not from the top down. Jesus calls us to be church, not wait for others to be or give us church. We are the Body of Christ just as we are.