Scripture Reflections for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

“When I resist what God wants me to do, what God wants me to be, that's trouble for me and for people that I am supposed to bring closer to God”

“Sometimes the worst experiences of life are taking you where God wants you to be”

“God's call is always difficult. My life on my terms that tends to be relatively easy”

“isn’t Paul challenging us who count ourselves Christian to see everything — grief and joy, commerce and the market, and above all marriage and sexuality — in the light of what ultimately matters?”

“We do not know, and are unable to imagine, what the new world order will be like, but we must not fashion for ourselves pictures of our future existence which are so insipid, so stupid, that they lead us to give up faith in God saving plan for his world”

“We are not meant to gaze and admire the apostles and saints, but to try to follow them”

“Have you ever considered the privilege, the enormity of the gift of being called by God, the creator of the universe, the King of Kings, the Lord of the Lords? Have you ever sat with that reality alone? Wow. That could be enough.”

“Well friends here's a challenge, we're Simon and Andrew, we are James and John. We are the inheritors of this biblical sense of time. We know the time of fulfillment has arrived...and now it's time for you to make a decision.”

“There are many prophets today who are calling on us to follow the Gospel and respond compassionately to those who are suffering...We prefer not to change our ways as the people of Ninevah did; we do not want to lower our carbon footprints, learn to live nonviolently, and stop using people and the planet for profit.”

“Conversion doesn’t start with our “yes,” but it requires it. God seeks, but God requires that we find–and choose.”

“may I suggest that we preach repentance best by living lives of simplicity and charity? How we do this will differ, depending on our family situations, our responsibilities, our jobs and our temperaments.”

“The call to repentance does not require any negotiation. It is a daily commitment to be in harmony with God.”

“Do we remain in the comfort of our homes and villages or run and hide? Or do we accept the call and say yes to the invitation of Jesus to overcome fears and prejudices, to change our lives and serve others?”

“Those who are humble are taught by God...The Ninevites, as well as the fishermen of Galilee, were simple common people willing to listen to God’s voice and be instructed. Pride plugs our ears. The proud cannot receive the message to repent and turn toward God. They don’t believe they need to repent.”

“It all begins and ends within the security that comes from belonging to God and abandoning ourselves to his loving providence for each of us”

“God usually doesn’t come to us in the way He came to Jonah, or to the disciples, but He does come to us. He comes to us in the beautiful music of life, the people we meet, and He comes to us in the tragedy. He comes to us, to move us, to try to motivate us to be better people.”

“We are called ‘Christians’ because of our bond with the person of Christ, our living in him and by him”

“Oh, how some of us wish that our response, “Yes, Lord,” would be followed by a clear plan with guidelines, maps, and a budget, straight from God. But the response is not just about the task being required of us; it is also about our own transformation.”

“The twelve are the foundation stones of the new Church because they were eyewitnesses to the whole of Jesus’ life from his baptism by John to his ascension. Chosen by Christ they are a special set of witnesses set apart not so much by what they see as by the fact that they are chosen to see.”

“He draws us into a community, the Church, whose very existence is mission, movement, to go out and preach the Good News. He calls us to share in his enterprise which is one of total security (‘God is faithful’), and at the same time one of unpredictable adventure.”

“as we let go of the things that are insufficient, we recognize the One who is sufficient. As we detach ourselves with the things that are passing away, we encounter the One who will remain forever...when our possessions no longer bring joy, when our work is done, God will still be there. God alone remains.”

“What would your life look like if Jesus is unambiguously the center of your life in every way?”

“the real message of Christianity is a revolution. It's about the breakthrough of a new world prompted by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead”

“the spiritual payoff of detachment is the conquest of fear. I'm not afraid. I'm not clinging to things of this world so that if I lose them I'll be terrified.”