Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Here are the readings for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 23, 2011:
Isaiah 8:23- 9:3
Psalm 27: 1,4, 13-14
1 Corinithians 1: 10-13, 17
Matthew 4: 12-23

Let's take a look at that second reading this week, where Paul urges the Corinthian community to shun divisions, to quit wasting their energy by focusing on asserting loyalties to the various leaders... except to the One who really matters: Jesus Christ. Being a Christian is not about impressing others by how much we know or how much we give or how holy we look while praying. In the Contemporary English Version translation of the Bible, approved for use in the Lectionary for Masses with Children, the reading ends this way:

Was I nailed to a cross for you? Were you baptized in my name?

Christ did not send me to baptize.

He sent me to tell the good news without using big words

that would make the cross of Christ lose its power.

• In what ways, by how we live, the tone of our words, or to whom we assume superiority, do we make it harder for others to understand the redeeming power of Christ's cross?
• Jesus came to relieve us of the burden of sin and conflict. How might you 'follow Jesus' by reaching out to a person you've quarreled with recently? 

The topic for the Catechumenate Session this Sunday is Ecumenism. 

Inquiry will meet on Tuesday January 25.