Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 305



Her husband Elkanah used to ask her:
“Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you refuse to eat?
Why do you grieve?
Am I not more to you than ten sons?”



With the Christmas song of the angels and the voice of thunder over the Jordan River still ringing in our ears we set out in Ordinary Time. On this first day we hear Jesus, freshly baptized and returning from his desert retreat, shouting, “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”


But before that we heard the story of Hannah’s barrenness, Peninah’s jealous hostility and Elkanah’s awkward attempts to comfort Hannah. This is one of those dangerous triangular relationships in which unwary individuals always lose. (When the atheist Jean Paul Sartre described Hell, he imagined three people in one room forever.) In this case, Hannah is the victim; Peninah, the tormentor; and Elkanah, the helpless rescuer. Each is driven by uncontrollable urges; no one can make the situation right; and everybody suffers. If they all switched roles, as they probably did, the outcome was the same -- Big Time Hurt.

The story from I Samuel has a too-familiar quality. it reminds us of our helplessness and our need for deliverance. Each person in the story has a measure of charm: Hannah is devout and beautiful; the young husband Elkanah wants to please two wives; and Peninah is a healthy mother of many children. But their charming qualities cannot relieve their distress. Their predicament is hopeless. Only God can set things right.

“This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand….

Fallen tree

Jesus appears suddenly in the Gospel of Saint Mark, announcing the Good News. He is the Word made Flesh, the marriage of human and divine, the incarnate reconciliation of opposites. Within him is harmony of heaven and earth.

He will be the victim who absorbs the punishment of our sins and the rescuer who frees us from guilt. He will also be the tormentor who, by his tender mercy, challenges our customary ways and uproots our former way of life. Those who resist him fight nature itself.
On this first day of Ordinary Time we hear Jesus’ invitation and follow the crowd of his disciples to happiness.