3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Link to today's readings
Jonah 3: 1-5 + Psalm 25: 4-9 + 1 Cor. 7: 29-31 + Mark 1: 14-20

Click here to listen to this homily
Given at Holy Spirit Catholic Church on January 25, 2015

This is the only time we hear from the Book of Jonah in the 3-year cycle of readings. Scholars agree that it is not a historical book, but more of a didactic tool, a way to teach about the greatness of God’s mercy. That mercy flows into the lives of the people of Nineveh through the most unlikely of prophets, Jonah himself, who is not too excited about his mission.

You know the story. Jonah runs the other way when God first calls him to go to Nineveh. Why? The Ninevites are part of the hated Assyrian Empire, fierce enemies of the people of Israel. Jonah wants no part of extending God’s mercy to his enemies. Besides, they might even kill him. But God has other plans as fleeing Jonah is tossed overboard into the sea and delivered to Nineveh via sea-mail. After those 3 days in the belly of the whale, Jonah reluctantly does what God asks. Amazingly, God uses the prophet’s half-hearted in his call to repentance—“40 days more and the city of Nineveh will be destroyed” to shake up the people of Nineveh, from top to bottom. Immediately,  the people repent, from greatest to smallest.  Immediately! The Ninevites hear the call of God, and they leave their former way of life, in order to follow in God’s way

Jonah’s response---he sulks.  In fact, he becomes angry with God when a

little bush that gives him shade from the scalding sun shrivels up and dies.

So God tells Jonah, in no uncertain terms, that the lives of the people of Nineveh are more important to God than a little shade bush.

Jonah is challenged to see that God’s ways are not his ways, that God’s mercy

is greater than he can understand, even saving his enemies from their evil ways. This little book in the Old Testament reveals the universal call of God to salvation—the Divine Desire to save all people!

The Church chooses to pair the message of God’s mercy calling people to repentance with today’s Gospel passage in Mark because of Jesus’ call to repentance. But the message goes to a whole new level in this Gospel passage. For now it is God in the flesh making this appeal, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Now it is the Son of God calling out for people to repent, not a reluctant prophet.

The Greek word for “repent” is “metanoia”, which literally means, “change your mind,” “change the way you think.” Jesus challenges those first hearers of his message and us to change the way we think about God. You think the kingdom of God is far away—well, it’s right here at hand. You think God is distant--think again, because God is close enough to touch in Jesus. You think God does not care about your life—then listen to the Good News—God does, even enough to become one with us in Jesus in order to show us the way to life.

The focus in the Gospel is not so much on what those first disciples are leaving behind, but rather on what they are gaining. They are gaining a friend who desires their highest good, a friend whom they will eventually come to know as their Savior and Lord.

After all, everyone is going to give their life to someone or something,

everyone is going to spend their life following someone or something.

Why not choose to follow Jesus who promises abundant life? Why not give one’s life fully to Jesus who helps them see God and God’s doings in a new way?

Many people hear this Gospel passage and think about it in terms of “vocation”, that is the call of God to a special few to leave everything behind in order to follow the Lord. So they think this story is about those who choose to follow the call to a “religious” life:  to become a priest or a monk or a nun. But this is simply not the case—for the Lord Jesus calls every one of us to follow him.

He calls every one of us to repent and believe in the great good news of the gospel.

The fathers of the 2^nd Vatican Council spoke about this in terms of a

“universal call to holiness.” Every single person God creates is called into a deep relationship of love with God by being a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

Lay People are not called to leave everything like the first disciples.Repentance instead means re-prioritizing your life. You are not called to leave job and family, but to make the following of Jesus in daily life your #1 priority. To say by the choices you make in life, “My relationship with Jesus comes first. Everything else falls into place after that.”

What James and John teach us by leaving their father in the boat in order to follow Jesus is that family cannot be more important than our relationship with Jesus. What all four of those first disciples teach us by leaving their work behind

to follow the Lord is that one’s job cannot become one’s God.

So, repentance for all of us is a matter of reprioritizing, of making our relationship with the Lord Jesus the most important matter of our life. To always ask the question:  “Does this person or this thing help me follow the Lord or is this person or thing drawing me away from the Lord?”

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ does not mean our lives will be easy or free of trials or other difficulties. In this “Year of Mark,” as we journey with Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John, and the other disciples, we will discover that being a disciple of Christ Jesus can be challenging. We will see our story written in their story:  misunderstandings, failures, and suffering are all part of the story.

Along the way we will learn with them from the Lord how the power of self-giving love for the benefit of others transforms the world.

That humble service of others is the way to greatness in the Kingdom of God.

That the way to abundant life is not by taking but by giving. That the way to joy is not by possessing more or better things, but by being more fully possessed by the love of Christ.

That the way to lasting peace is not the way of trying to control everything in our life, but by surrendering our lives with Christ to the Father. Which is what we do at every celebration of the Eucharist.

Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi