January 12, 2026 -- Monday of 1st Week "B"
H O M I L Y
We resume today the "Ordinary time" with the beginning of two Books from the Bible that will accompany us for a few weeks: the First Book of Samuel for the first reading and the Gospel of Mark as second reading.
We could say that the theme of the two readings of today is "Vocation". In the first reading we have only the beginning of the vocation of Samuel, of which we will have the full story in the next few days. So let us reflect rather on the Gospel in which we have the story of the call of the first Apostles as it was recorded by the Evangelist Mark.
The events of Jesus' public ministry are rapidly taking on pace. John the Baptist has been arrested and is in jail. He will soon be put to death. Jesus, whose hour has not come yet, goes to Galilee, where he begins to proclaim the good News. It would be futile to try to harmonize the narratives of the Gospel of Mark with that of John, and trying to decide whether there were two calls or one, whether it was in Judea or in Galilee. The Evangelists are not journalists and their goal is not to give an accurate description of what exactly happened; it is rather to give a spiritual and theological interpretation of the calling of the first Apostles.
In Mark, there are two initial groups: first, Simon and his brother Andrew, and then James and John, sons of Zebedee. All four are fishermen, which was obviously a very common profession around the lake of Galilee. All are at work when they are called. When Jesus tells them : "Follow me", inviting them to be his disciples, they are called to abandon not only what they own, that is their nets and their boats, but also their work -- their profession, their livelihood. In the second group, Mark wants to show that they are called to abandon also their family and other social relationships, that is, their father and his employees.
We see here, already put in practice, what Jesus will say later on about discipleship: You cannot be my disciples without renouncing everything that you have, including father and mother, brothers and sisters and servants.
The beginning of the Gospel already shows us a community being assembled around Jesus and composed of people who have abandoned everything in order to follow Him. They form what will soon be called the "apostolic community", that is the community of the Apostles around Jesus, and the monastic documents of the fourth and fifth century will see in that community the prototype of monastic life.
This is an opportunity given to us to consider once more our own call to leave everything behind and follow Christ. Did we really leave everything behind? How much of what we have left behind have we claimed back afterwards... During the rest of this celebration let us ask Jesus to open our eyes and to allow us to answer honestly these questions.
Armand VEILLEUX
*** We also celebrate today the Memorial of saint Aelred, abbot of our Order.