Scripture Reflections for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A, Lectionary 67


Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: BaptismCallChurchCommunityConversionCreationDarknessDiscipleDivisionEncounterExileFollowGatherGospelHealingHistoryHopeKingdomLightLoveMessiahMissionPrisonProphecyProphetRepentScriptureSentSinSt. PaulSufferingUnity

Isaiah 8:23, 9:1-3
Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17

“some people are saying when they say 'I belong to Paul' what they mean is 'I was baptized by Paul' or 'I belong to Apollos' they might mean 'I was baptized by Apollos.' And so Paul is saying that's not how this works. If you're baptized, you're baptized into Christ.”

"Division in the Early Church" | Brant Pitre |
Matthew 4:12-23

“Precisely where the twelve tribes were decimated and broken into pieces and scattered to the four winds is where Jesus is going to begin calling his twelve disciples in order to gather around himself a new Israel in order to establish a new kingdom”

"Jesus Public Ministry Begins (Part 1)" | Brant Pitre |

“'ten of those twelve tribes are lost among the Gentiles so how are you going to gather them all back? How are you going to reconstitute the kingdom of David?'...the answer is real simple. If you want to get the lost tribes of Israel you got to go get the Gentiles because that's where they are, scattered among the nations.”

"Jesus Public Ministry Begins (Part 2)" | Brant Pitre |

“Jesus isn't satisfied with meeting you in all of the sacred spaces once a week. Jesus wants to be a part of your everyday world. He wants to be in the nitty-gritty of your life and so he's going to meet you out at the seashore. He's going to meet you in your workplace.”

Fr. Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ |

“Jesus not only invites the apostles to drop everything...but he does so in a way that is so attractive that the apostles literally drop everything at that moment to follow Jesus. How did Jesus say this? What exactly did he say? What would Jesus need to say to you to lead you to drop everything you have to follow him?”

Jocelyn Collen |
Overall Readings

“Scripture is handed over to us so that we might know how to live so that we might know how to love. And living and loving as Christ lived and loved comes at a cost sometimes”

Damian Torres-Botello, SJ |

“In the Jewish tradition rabbis did not seek out students; students applied to rabbis to be their student. Here...Jesus comes to Simon and Andrew, to James and John. They do not come to him. And the summons to follow him comes to them in their everyday world. It lays hold of them and changes their lives forever.”

"Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom" | Fr. Geoffrey Plant |

“When Jesus calls Peter and Andrew he does not call them to an ideology or a political party, he calls them to fish for human beings. To love Jesus, to follow him, to join in the work of his kingdom is to seek after people, to love people, and to put people above everything else.”

Shannon Wimp Schmidt |

“sometimes we unknowingly make a god out of the liturgy forgetting that the liturgy itself, like ourselves, is at the service of God”

Fr. Emmanuel Ochigbo |

“we don't come to proclaim God's vengeance, we come to proclaim God's mercy”

Monsignor Raymond East |

“Jesus's vision that light would conquer the darkness and that life would overcome death served as an audacious message of hope and liberation...This vision represents the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. A state of being where all of creation participates in building a world of love, justice, forgiveness and peace.”

Karen Ross |