Week 01 Monday (Year 2)

 Readings: 1 Samuel 1.1-8; Psalm 116; Mark 1.14-20

In the work of Jesus there is always continuity and discontinuity. The relationship of God and the people already established is the basis on which a new reality is built and from which that new reality springs. We saw it throughout the Christmas season and we see it again in a number of ways in today's readings.

The mother of Samuel, Hannah, anticipates Mary, the mother of Jesus, and will provide many of the words and ideas we find later in Mary's Magnificat. Hannah is sterile, and suffers as a consequence of that, but her sterility confirms that it is through divine action that Samuel is conceived and born: nothing is impossible for God. So later Elizabeth conceiving John the Baptist and, even more wondrous, Mary conceiving Jesus.

Jesus himself is at first a follower of John the Baptist and continues his preaching mission. He accepts baptism at the hands of John. The message he preaches is exactly the same: 'the kingdom of God is at hand, repent, and believe in the gospel'. But 'after John had been arrested' - it is a very significant moment, a 'game changer' as we might say - Jesus not only continues the preaching mission of the Baptist but begins to establish a new reality with the calling of the first four disciples: his own organisation, his own movement, his own community.

John asked people to act justly in whatever profession or activity they were engaged in. Jesus asked people to give up what they were doing, to leave everything, and to follow him. It is a more radical call as the disciples have their profession transformed: from now on they are to be in the first place 'fishers of men'. They are to 'follow Jesus' who now places himself at the centre of the preaching mission in a way that the Baptist did not do but which he had prophesied for the 'greater one' coming after him.

So what about ourselves? Expect continuity and discontinuity always seems to be one lesson for us to take from these readings. Live from what is old into what is new. Sterility of whatever kind is no obstacle. Repent - be ready to change your mind. Believe - entrust yourself to the one who calls you. Follow Jesus - have that mind in you that was Christ's, his way of seeing things, his way of receiving people and responding to them.

We are back in ordinary time, that is, the time of fulfilment.