Jon 3: 1-5, 10
1 Cor 7: 29-31
Mk 1: 14-20
The Word for Sunday: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/012515.cfm
It
may not be often that we acquaint the Bible with humorous stories but this
weekend in our first reading we hear from the Book of Jonah, which scholars
have always seen not as a literal relating of facts but as a tongue in cheek
satirical story about ancient Israel and their naïve conception of what God is
like, and who’s in and who’s out.
The
surprising twist takes place when God changes his mind as the Ninevites repent and
the joke is on Jonah. Humor is also found in several of the parables which
Jesus must have told with a smile on his face.
For example read Luke 18: 1-8 about the woman who demanded her rights
before the judge who proclaimed, literally: “Give her what she wants before she
punches me in the eye!”
This
Sunday’s first reading from Jonah relates a story of repentance as does the
Gospel. Jonah is called by God to warn
the pagan Ninevites: ““Forty days more and
Nineveh shall be destroyed.” With a kind of glee before God, Jonah is convinced
the Ninevites would never repent and now dares God as he intends to prove his
point. He is pleased that God will destroy these pagans. Then, to his wonder, they repent and God
changes his mind! You can imagine old
Jonah standing there with his mouth agape and a look of confusion.
“What
a minute, Lord,” you can hear Jonah say in embarrassment. “You sent me to warn them of impending
destruction and now you change your mind? Where does that leave me since I put
my life on the line here?”
Why
does God “change his mind?” Because, as
one scholar stated: “God doesn’t have to be faithful to God’s word as long as
God is faithful to God’s people.” He saw the repentance of the Ninevites and
his divine hope for their salvation was realized since God desires relationship
with us far more than he does our abandonment or destruction.
So,
thank God, he changed his mind and it became a new understanding for Jonah
about God’s abundant mercy, which was a lesson for the nation of Israel (who
Jonah symbolizes in the satirical book) that God loves not only them but all
who would come to him in repentance. By
such their own myopic view of God was challenged.
This
takes us to the Gospel story of Jesus’ call: “This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark connects
this beginning of Jesus’ core message in his preaching to that of John the
Baptist. Jesus takes up where John left
off and expands God’s invitation to come to this new way of life through
personal conversion.
With
that, Jesus is next seen walking along the Sea of Galilee and calls to himself
his first disciples: “Come after me, and I
will make you fishers of men.” And so the fishermen Andrew, Simon, James
and John, so engrossed in their profession, drop everything instantly, which is
amazing in itself if that is exactly what happened, and follow Jesus. Last Sunday we heard John’s version of this
same event in (Jn 1:35-42) but John emphasized more the invitation to come into
a deeper relationship with Jesus: “Come
and you will see.”
An
interesting strong possibility that may answer our amazement at the seemingly instantaneous
response to Jesus’ call from these fishermen is the distinct possibility that
they already knew Jesus. A strong
tradition holds that after Jesus’ baptism he became a follower of John the Baptist
and might have been engaged in a shared baptismal ministry along with John.
Yet, among John’s early disciples were these fishermen as we heard last Sunday: Andrew, Simon, James and John. Thereby they were already acquainted with
Jesus.
Now
that John is gone, Jesus’ takes up John’s mission, as we hear in his similar call
to repentance. These former disciples of John, who have searched for a new John,
find him in Jesus – at least to begin with. News spread quickly in those days
through the gossip lines for there was no other way to inform others of “breaking
news” events as we speak today.
So,
this Sunday Mark emphasizes the early disciples’ response and how that response
was one without hesitation and filled with what must have been eagerness and
curiosity. Did they know what they were
getting in to? Of course not – how could they?
Jesus didn’t promise anything at this point; he simply called them to
follow but where and to what?
To
be Christian, to be formed by a new vision of God, as Jonah discovered, and to
then go on mission to a world so dark and divided by confusion, pride, hatred,
and prejudice. That God’s mercy and forgiveness, which is the heart of
Christianity, is available for all who would embrace their own invitation to
follow the Lord, regardless of who they are. Our response should be one of no hesitation
to take up the same baton. Like passing the Olympic torch from one runner to
another we now carry that light from those before us.
It’s
a powerful moment in the beginning of the Gospel stories and that of Jesus’ now
public ministry. From obscurity in
Nazareth this charismatic and mysterious preacher appears along the Sea of
Galilee not to fish for fish but to fish for people, when he invites others to
join him in this cause.
Our
own invitation may have come to us through far different events but nonetheless
is the same: conversion of heart and life in order to embrace the Good News of
the Gospel and to call others to do the same.
In
our vocations, from the word vocare, meaning
to call, we are invited as married
persons, as ordained ministers, as consecrated religious men and women, and as
single people to a common mission which we live out in and through the
Christian lifestyle we have embraced and in the family of the Church, the
People of God. None of us is exempt and
through our common baptism, like Christ himself who showed us the way, our
lives involve the same mission which Jesus’ began.
When
we come for the Eucharist each weekend, our particular state in life does not
matter in the same way it does beyond the borders of our Churches. Here, gathered for Word and Sacrament, we are
one regardless of our economic status, politics, language, color of our skin,
or whether we are male or female, young or old.
We all have a common mission to fulfill and we are privileged to share
in Jesus’ own invitation.
Let’s
not be like Jonah; surprised that God is merciful and forgiving to all who seek
him. It will challenge our own views and
our own narrow prejudices for all have a share in his kingdom.
"Open our eyes
to the needs of our brothers and sisters'
inspire in us words and actions
to comfort those who labor and are burdened.
Make us serve them truly,
after the example of Christ and at his command.
And may your Church stand as a living witness
to truth and freedom,
to peace and justice,
that all people may be raised up to a new hope."
(From Eucharistic Prayer for use in Various needs, #4)
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