SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, JANUARY 17, 2021

HERE AM I, LORD—TO DO YOUR WILL

Greeting: (cf. Second Reading)

Your bodies are members making up the body of Christ. Anyone who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Use your body for the glory of God. May the Lord Jesus be always with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction

Here Am I, Lord

Perhaps we don’t realize enough how hard it is to listen to one another. We are so busy with ourselves and with our affairs that we don’t hear others or listen to them. How much harder it is for us to hear God and to listen to him! He loves us; he speaks to us, mainly through his written word in the scriptures, in the voice of the Church, in his commandments, in other people, especially in prophets and the poor, in the events of life. Pay attention, try to hear him and say: “Speak, Lord, your servant listens.” Like the young Samuel, and like Jesus taught us, we pray: Lord, if you can use anything, use us!

Penitential Act

If only we had heeded more the word of the Lord! We ask him now to forgive us. (pause)

Lord Jesus, you speak to us when you let your Spirit prompt us to do what is good and be just to people. Make us listen to your voice: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, you speak to us when our shepherds and prophets remind us how we can serve you and our neighbor. Make us listen to your voice. Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you speak to us when people appeal to our sense of justice, mercy or compassion. Make us listen to your voice: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Forgive us, Lord, that we have turned a deaf ear to you when you spoke to us. Dispose us to listen to you and lead us to everlasting live. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray that we may be aware of Jesus’ call

(pause)

God our Father, we believe in your Son Jesus Christ. Open our ears to listen to his word. Open our hearts that we may experience his message as a call addressed personally to each of us. And may each of us say, “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.” We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: Speak Lord, Your Servant Listens

Young Samuel responds to God’s mysterious call to put himself entirely in God’s service.

1 Reading: 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19

Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was. The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.” “I did not call you, ” Eli said. “Go back to sleep.” So he went back to sleep. Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am, ” he said. “You called me.” But Eli answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.” At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet. The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.” Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry. And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God. R.

Sacrifice or offering you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, “Behold I come.” R.

“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” R.

I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know. R.

Second Reading: Your Body is the Temple of the Spirit

To the Corinthians, living in a port city with much sexual immorality, Paul says: your body is sacred for God, for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

2 Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20

Brothers and sisters: The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body; God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

Alleluia: John 1:41, 17b

Alleluia, alleluia. We have found the Messiah: Jesus Christ, who brings us truth and grace. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Come and See

Two disciples of John encounter Jesus and he calls them to stay with him. Once they know him better, they will follow him.

Gospel: John 1:35-42

John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi”—which translated means Teacher —, “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah”—which is translated Christ—. Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas”—which is translated Peter.

Commentary:

Have we Christians really encountered the Lord? Certainly, we believe in him, we pray to him, we hear his message proclaimed Sunday after Sunday, and have perhaps read the gospels in private. But affecting us much more deeply is encountering the Lord in person. It is only then that a deep understanding, a warm relationship with him and a real sense of our mission in life can be born and developed. Come, let us accept his invitation to “come and see” what he has to offer us and what he is asking of us. He is here with us in the Eucharist. Let us ask Jesus to show us where he lives, who he is, and what he expects of us.

Indeed, before we could even know him God called us by name when we were baptized. He called us to be his sons and daughters and gave each of us a task in the Church. Vocation is not restricted to priests and nuns but a call given to us all. This call came not only once, when we became God’s children in baptism. God keeps calling us day after day to live as his children and to work for his kingdom. The readings that we hear in this Eucharistic celebration are God’s word and call to us today. The sacrifice that we offer with Jesus our Lord commits us to give a generous answer to God’s call of love. To be near him—to be his companions.

And as we can testify, the Son of Man chose to be as near to nothing as a human being could be – in order to share our nature to the very depths.

Intercessions

In baptism God our Father has called us to belong no longer to ourselves but to live for God and for people. Let us pray to our Father in heaven that we may always respond to his call in the concrete circumstances of life and let us say:

R/ Speak, Lord, your servants listen.

– To those called in the Church to lead the people of God, that they may have the courage to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth without compromise or fear, let us pray: