January 12, 2026
Monday of the First Week in
Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 305
Reading
I
There was a
certain man from Ramathaim, Elkanah by name,
a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim.
He was the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu,
son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
He had two wives, one named Hannah, the other Peninnah;
Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.
This man regularly went on pilgrimage from his city
to worship the LORD of hosts and to sacrifice to him at Shiloh,
where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas,
were ministering as priests of the LORD.
When the day came for Elkanah to offer sacrifice,
he used to give a portion each to his wife Peninnah
and to all her sons and daughters,
but a double portion to Hannah because he loved her,
though the LORD had made her barren.
Her rival, to upset her, turned it into a constant reproach to her
that the LORD had left her barren.
This went on year after year;
each time they made their pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the LORD,
Peninnah would approach her,
and Hannah would weep and refuse to eat.
Her husband Elkanah used to ask her:
“Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you refuse to eat?
Why do you grieve?
Am I not more to you than ten sons?”
Responsorial
Psalm
R.
(17a) To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the
good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will
call upon the name of the LORD.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a
sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the
presence of all his people.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful
ones.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your
servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have
loosed my bonds.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a
sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the
presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your
midst, O Jerusalem.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a
sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
The Kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
After John had
been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Then they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011226.cfm
Commentary on 1
Samuel 1:1-8
We begin this new year’s Ordinary Time First Readings with
the First Book of Samuel. The book opens by introducing us to Elkanah, a good
and religious man who comes from Rama-thaim. The place was also known as Ramah.
It may be the same as the Ramah of Benjamin (see Jos 18:25), which was located
in the hill country about 8 km (5 miles) north of Jerusalem, near the border
between the territories of Ephraim and Benjamin.
Elkanah is called an Ephraimite, but he was more likely a
Levite whose family belonged to the Kohathite clans to whom had been allotted
towns in Ephraim. Ephraim lay north of Judah and just north-west of the Dead
Sea. Jerusalem was in the territory of Benjamim (see any decent Old Testament
map).
According to the custom of the time, he had two wives,
Peninnah and Hannah. We first see polygamy enter the Old Testament with Lamech
(Gen 4:19). Although the union of Adam and Eve (Gen 2:23-44) seems to endorse
monogamy as God’s intention, we know that many of the patriarchs were
polygamous and otherwise unfaithful, if not actually promiscuous. We remember
how Sarai (Sarah), the barren wife of Abram, tells her husband to sleep with
her slave in order to have a son. Later, of course, Sarah does have a
son—Isaac, who will become the patriarch of God’s people. In Genesis (25:6)
there is mention of the concubines of Abraham.
Penninah had borne several children to her husband, but
Hannah was barren, perhaps the most painful experience any married women of
those times could have. It was a culture where a woman’s success was measured
by her being able to give children, especially sons, to her husband and his
family, thus ensuring the continuance of the family line. Sometimes, of course,
it is the husband who is sterile, but that is clearly not the situation here.
Every year Elkanah made a yearly pilgrimage with his family
to the shrine at Shiloh and offered sacrifice there. The archeological site of
Tel-Shiloh is about 19 km (12 miles) south of Nablus, between Bethel and
Shechem. It was the home of the Ark in the time of Joshua, but its sanctuary
there was destroyed probably by the Philistines after the defeat mentioned in
chapter 4 of 1 Samuel.
Three times a year, every Israelite male was required to
appear before the Lord at the central sanctuary. The term used here is “Lord of
hosts” (or in some translations “Yahweh of armies”). This alluded not just to
the people of Israel, but included the stars and other heavenly powers, angels
and all cosmic forces—all seen as being under God’s command. This ancient title
was associated with the Ark (see 1 Sam 4:3), the sacred emblem protecting
Israel whenever Yahweh waged war with his people on their enemies.
With the establishment of kingship in Israel the term ‘Lord
of hosts’ became particularly appropriate as a reference to God as the ‘God of
armies’—both of the heavenly army and of the army of Israel. Although this is
the first recorded use of the title in the Old Testament, it is used freely in
the major prophets (with the exception of Ezekiel) and in the Psalms.
The festival referred to here was probably the feast of the
Shelters (Tabernacles), which not only commemorated God’s care for his people
during the desert journey to Canaan, but more especially celebrated, with joy
and feasting, God’s blessing on the year’s crops. On such festive occasions
Hannah’s deep sorrow because of her own barrenness was the more poignant.
On that day when he would offer sacrifice, Elkanah would
give portions to Penninah and the children she had borne, but a double portion
to Hannah*:
…because he loved her [more], though the Lord
had closed her womb.
Children were seen primarily as a gift from God. The
‘sacrifice’ here refers to one which was combined with a festive meal,
signifying fellowship and communion with the Lord and gratitude for his
mercies.
Penninah would mock and jeer at Hannah’s barrenness and this
situation went on year after year. Stricken with shame and distress, Hannah
refused to eat. Elkanah, who was clearly a good and compassionate man, tried to
console her by reminding her that she had a loving husband, and was he:
…not worth more to her than ten sons?
As we shall see, God is not going to abandon two such very
good people. And so the stage is set for something very special to happen.
It is easy for us sometimes to regret that God has not given
us some gift which we would dearly love to have. Perhaps, too, we have become
the object of people’s mockery or criticism and asked “Why did God do that to
me?” Yet God is working in our lives and we need to ask him to help us see
where, even in our deficiencies, his love and grace are at work in us. We may
be in for some surprises.
Let us then learn to light one candle rather than curse the
darkness.
_____________
*There is a difference across various biblical translations of
this text. For example, the Jerusalem Bible says that Elkanah
gave several portions to his wife, Peninnah, and her children, but only one to
Hannah, because God had made her barren. However, the New Revised
Standard Version updated edition (NRSVue) and the New American
Bible both say that Elkanah gave a double portion to Hannah, even
though she was barren, “because he loved her” more. Both texts, however, agree
that Elkanah loved Hannah more than Penninah.
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Commentary on
Mark 1:14-20
We now begin our readings from Mark’s Gospel and we will be
following him for the next several weeks. Today’s reading follows immediately
on the short accounts of Jesus’ baptism and temptations in the desert that Mark
gives. It is the beginning of his public ministry. The reading consists of two
main parts—a summary of Jesus’ teaching and the first response to it.
As the passage opens, we are told that John (the Baptist)
has been arrested (the reason for his arrest will be given later). The word for
‘arrest’ is literally ‘handed over’, a key word which will be used later of
Jesus himself, his disciples, and indeed of many others down the centuries. The
term is also used in our Eucharist when the celebrant at the consecration says:
This is my Body which will be given up for you.
Our translation of ‘given up’ represents the Latin
word tradetur, which literally means ‘handed over’. Jesus is daily
handed over to us, or rather, he hands himself over to us and expects us to do
the same for our brothers and sisters.
Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming the gospel, the
good news, of God. It is summed up in the words:
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come
near; repent, and believe in the good news.
It is a deceptively simple statement which, in fact, is rich
in meaning. One can say that the whole of the gospel message is contained in
those two sentences.
The following words require comment:
- time
- kingdom
- repent
- believe
in
The time is fulfilled
In the Scriptures, ‘time’ is translated using the Greek word kairos.
Specifically, kairos refers to a moment when something is ripe
to happen, a serendipitous moment. And that exactly describes the appearance of
Jesus, an appearance which the whole of the Old Covenant has been preparing for
and leading up to.
The Kingdom of God is at hand
The whole of Jesus’ message centres round the idea of the ‘Kingdom of God’. It
was the coming of that Kingdom which he proclaimed; it was the core of his
teaching. Because of Matthew’s use of the term “Kingdom of heaven”, there is a
possibility that we think of the ‘Kingdom’ as only belonging to the life after
death. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The word ‘Kingdom’ translates the Greek word basileia,
an abstract noun which is better rendered as ‘kingship’ or ‘reign’. Kingdom
here does not refer to a place. It points to the ruling power of God, a power
based above all on love. Wherever the love of God prevails in our world we can
say that the Kingdom is there. Love essentially involves other people, so the Kingdom
is not a place or an action, but a complex of harmonious and interacting
relationships. Jesus came to call every single person to belong to such a
world.
We need to emphasise that the Kingdom and the Church, or the
Kingdom and Christianity, do not coincide. The role of the Church is to be a
sacrament of the Kingdom. It fulfils that role with varying degrees of success.
There are Kingdom people everywhere, that is, people who base their lives on
love and justice, on peace and freedom, who are not Christians at all—but they
are Kingdom people, because their lives reflect the spirit of God. Mere
membership in a Christian group does not guarantee one is a Kingdom person.
Repent
Here we have the basic steps needed to become fully a Kingdom person. First, we
need to repent. This is the most common translation of the Greek verb for the
noun metanoia. It is not a very happy rendering. ‘Repent’, for most
people means being sorry for something done in the past. That is not excluded
here; rather metanoia looks much more to the future. Metanoia really
means a radical change in one’s thinking, in this case, about the meaning and
purpose of life, and how that life is to be lived. Jesus is calling here for a
radical conversion, and for us to take to heart his vision of life.
Believe in the good news
And how is that metanoia to be achieved? It will come about by
our believing in the “good news”, i.e. the gospel. For many Christians,
‘belief’ means the total acceptance of the teachings of Christ as interpreted
for us by the Church. But something more is asked of us here. We are asked not
just to believe, but to believe in. It is one thing to believe
something is true, but that belief may not affect our lives very much. In
calling on us to believe in the message that the gospel
brings, we are being asked for a total investment of ourselves, and not just
the accepting of doctrines as true. We are being called on to live our lives
and pattern them on the model of Jesus himself. Again, we will see what that
entails as we go through the Gospel in coming weeks.
The second part of the reading gives us a dramatic example
of some people who did just what Jesus was asking. As Jesus walked by the Sea
of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, who were fishermen, casting
their nets into the sea. They were doing their daily work. Jesus said to them:
Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.
There and then, they dropped their nets, their whole means
of livelihood, and went after Jesus. A little further on Jesus saw two sons of
Zebedee, James and John, who were mending their nets. These two Jesus also
called. They promptly left their father in the boat with his hired men and
followed Jesus. Later Jesus will say:
Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be
my disciple. (Luke 14:26)
Here we have that metanoia, that radical change
of life, taking place. They follow Jesus with total trust. As they go off, they
have no idea where they are going or what it will entail. They believe
in Jesus, putting all their trust in him. They were to meet many
trials and tribulations on the way, but they never regretted the step they
took. Only by following their example will we too have the same experience. The
only guarantee we have is that those who do take Jesus’ call seriously, and
live it to the fullest, know that they made the right choice.
Finally, we might say that this story is to be read as a
kind of parable. We say this because we know that later on, the disciples will
still be in contact with their families and those boats will appear several
times in the Gospel story. What is being emphasised here is the total
commitment to the Way and vision of Jesus, which is symbolised by the total
abandoning of the boats and family members.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2012g/
Monday, January 12,
2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father of love, hear our prayers.
Help us to know your will it with courage and faith.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Mark 1: 14-20
After John had been arrested, Jesus went into
Galilee. There he proclaimed the gospel from God saying, 'The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the
gospel.'
As he was walking along by the Lake of
Galilee, he saw Simon and Simon's brother Andrew casting a net in the lake --
for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, 'Come after me and I will make
you into fishers of people.' And at once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on a little further, he saw James, son
of Zebedee, and his brother John; they too were in their boat, mending the
nets. At once he called them and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with
the men he employed, they went after him.
Reflection
•
After John had been arrested, Jesus went to
Galilee. There he proclaimed the Gospel of God. John was arrested by King Herod
for having denounced the immoral behavior of the King (Lk 3: 18-20). The
imprisonment of John the Baptist did not frighten Jesus! On the contrary, all
the opposite! In that he saw a symbol of the coming of the Kingdom. And today,
would it be that we know how to read the facts of politics and of urban
violence to announce or proclaim the Good News of God?
•
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of God. The Good
News is of God not only because it comes from God, but also and, above all,
because God is its content. God, himself, is the greatest Good News for human
life. He responds to the deepest aspiration of our heart. In Jesus we see what
happens when a human person allows God to enter and to reign. This Good News of
the Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus has four different aspects:
•
The time is fulfilled, has arrived. For the
other Jews the time was not as yet fulfilled, had not arrived. There was still
much missing for the coming of the Kingdom. For the Pharisees, for example, the
Kingdom could be attained only when the observance of the Law would be perfect.
Jesus had another way of reading the facts. He says that the time is fulfilled,
it has arrived.
•
The Kingdom of God is close at hand! For the
Pharisees the coming of the Kingdom depended on their efforts. It would have
arrived only after they had observed the Law. Jesus says the contrary: “The
Kingdom is close at hand.” It is already here! Independently of the efforts made!
When Jesus says: “The Kingdom is close at hand,” he does not mean to say that
the Kingdom has been reached only at that moment, but rather that it was
already there. What everybody was expecting was already present in their life,
and they did not know it, they did not perceive it (cf. Lk 17: 21). Jesus
perceived it! Because he saw and read reality with a different look. It is in
this hidden presence of the Kingdom in the midst of the people that Jesus
reveals himself to the poor of his land. And this is the seed of the Kingdom
which will receive the rain of his Word and the warmth of his love.
•
Convert yourselves! The exact meaning is to
change the way of thinking and of living. In order to be able to perceive the
presence of the Kingdom in life, the person should begin to think and to live
in a diverse way. The person should change way of life and find another way of
living together with others! He/she should leave aside all legalism of the
teaching of the Pharisees and allow the new experience of God to invade his/her
life and give him/her a new way of looking so as to read and understand the
facts in a new way.
•
To believe in the Good News! It was not easy to
accept this message. It is not easy for us to begin to think in a different way
from all that we have learnt, since we were small children. This is possible
only through an act of faith. When someone give a diverse news, it is difficult
to accept it, and it is accepted only if we trust the person who gives the
news. And thus, you will say to others: “You can accept! I know this person!
This person does not deceive! You can trust him/her! We can trust Jesus!
•
The first objective of the proclamation of the
Good News is that of forming a community. Jesus goes by, he sees, and he calls.
The first four who were called, Simon, Andrew, John and James, listen, abandon
everything and follow Jesus in order to form a community with him. It seems to
be love at first sight! According to Mark’s account, everything takes place in
the first encounter with Jesus. Comparing with the other Gospels, people
perceive that the four already knew Jesus (Jn 1: 39; Lk 5: 1-11). They had
already had the opportunity to live with him, to see him help the people and to
listen to him in the Synagogue. They knew how he lived and what he thought. The
call was not something of one moment, but a question of repeated calls and
invitations, of progressing and of retreating. The call begins and begins again
always anew! In practice, it coincided with the living together with Jesus for
two or three years, since the time of the Baptism until the moment when Jesus
went to Heaven (Acts 1: 21-22). And then, why does Mark present this as
something sudden, an act of love at first sight? Mark thinks in the ideal: the
encounter with Jesus should bring about a radical change in our life!
Personal Questions
• A
political fact, the imprisonment of John, led Jesus to begin the proclamation
of the Good News of God. Today, do the facts of politics and of the police,
exercise any influence in the proclamation of the Good News that we present to
people? • “Convert yourselves!
Believe in the Good News!” How is this taking place in my own life?
Concluding Prayer
For you are Yahweh, Most High over all the earth, far
transcending all gods. (Ps 97: 9)
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