Gospel: January 24, 2025
January 24, 2025 (Friday)
2nd Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 2 / (White)
St. Francis de Sales, bishop & doctor
Ps 85:8 & 10, 11-12, 13-14
Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
1st Reading: Hebrews 8:6-13
Now, however, Jesus enjoys a much higher ministry, in being the mediator of a better Covenant, founded on better promises. If all had been perfect in the first Covenant, there would have been no need for another one. Yet God sees defects when he says: The days are coming it is the word of the Lord when I will draw up a new Covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the Covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt.
They did not keep my Covenant, and so I myself have forsaken them, says the Lord. But this is the Covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come: I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. None of them will have to teach one another or say to each other: Know the Lord, for they will know me from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and no longer remember their wrongs. Here, we are being told of a new Covenant; which means, that the first one had become obsolete, and what is obsolete, and aging, is soon to disappear.
Gospel: Mark 3:13-19
Then Jesus went up into the hill country, and called those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed Twelve to be with him, and he called them ‘apostles.’ He wanted to send them out to preach; and he gave them authority to drive out demons. These are the Twelve: Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John his brother, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, which means ‘men of thunder’; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alpheus, Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
Reflection:
“Listen and respond to God with trust and hope.”
What is an apostle? The meaning of apostolos is “one who is sent.” Here we find Jesus choosing 12 of his disciples for a special task. The disciple is one who learns from his master and follows him. The apostle is sent out to preach the Good News, to preach what he has learned. The modern apostles of the Church are the Bishops, called by Christ to spread the Good News throughout the world, and to preach that Gospel in their diocese.
Today we celebrate the feast of one bishop, whose preaching, counsel and writings made a huge impact far beyond his diocese of Geneva. Saint Francis de Sales could be described as a great apostle of the love and mercy of God. One day, when praying he had such a powerful experience of God’s mercy, that it shaped his preaching and his ministry for the rest of his life. Saint Francis encourages us to abandon ourselves to God’s Providence, to trust in his loving mercy, and not to be afraid. Christ sends us this Good News today. Let us listen and respond to God with trust and hope.
