HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY YR B (25/1/2015) TEXTS: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Ps 25:4-9; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20 The first reading tells us how Jonah did not respond quickly when God called him, perhaps because he hated the Gentile people of Nineveh and thought that they were not worthy of Gods gracious mercy. Jonah ran away.God had to halt Jonah in his flight before the prophet could respond affirmatively to His second call to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. Jonah could be seen from the lenses of our modern time as someone who refused to pick God’s call or if you like someone that switched off his phone and took off when God sent him on a mission to Nineveh. Nineveh of that time was the capital city of Assyria and also the capital of the known world at the time. As the meeting point of the high and mighty and a commercial crossroad, it brought together many people from various nationalities and cultures. On account of the busyness of the city and the cultural hybridization, it also became an irreligious and morally porous ground; more like a “Sin City”. Let us also not forget that the Israelites suffered captivity in the hands of the Assyrians. The first reading shows us that we should respond promptly to God’s call for repentance.The Book of Jonah was written in Palestine around the 5th century B.C. after the Babylonian exile. Some of the Jews were quite nationalistic,filled with a smug sense of their superiority over all other nations. Like Jonah, they wished God would destroy the nations they perceived as His enemies.For Jonah, the Ninevites were terrible people doing terrible things. The story of Jonah was intended to rebuke the Palestinians’ smallness of vision, and to teach them that God had care for other peoples besides themselves. The first two chapters describe how God responded to Jonah’s flight from His call and the mission He had assigned the prophet, exposing him to a deadly storm and an excruciating experience in the belly of a whale. From the narrative we gathered that the city was indeed very large and we could also add very beautiful. However in spite of its size and wealth it was filled with evil and wickedness. Sometimes we assume that when something is big, mighty and beautiful it will be free from evil. Nineveh remains an example for us to learn from. Next, we are told that it could take three days for Jonah to walk round the city to preach to them. However when he started God completed the walk for him. This tells us that when we walk with God, the road becomes shorter and easier. We only need to start and God will perfect what he has started in us (Phil. 1:6). When the people of Nineveh heard the message of God from Jonah they accepted it and also repented. One cannot but admire their prompt and speedy reaction to the message of the prophet. They did not wait for the next day, the next month, the next year as some of us keep postponing even our reconciliation with God in the sacrament of confession. When was your last good confession? God on His part accepted them immediately and forgave them their sins and the punishment due to them. Do we like God reconsider and reconcile with those who offended us. In the GOSPEL text, we read about the call of four of the apostles namely: Simon, Andrew, James and John. They had one thing in common and that is that they were fishermen. When our Lord called them, they left everything; their boats, nets (and for James and John) their father. They followed our Lord Jesus Christ without asking questions like: “how can we become fishers of men?” Every single answer could be found in the one who called them. Their prompt and unquestioning response to the call of our Lord Jesus Christ is reflective of St. Paul’s admonition in the Second Reading (1 Cor. 7:29-31) where he enjoined the Corinthians not to place so much premium on material concerns as time is passing. In another place St. Paul further said: However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24) The best disposition is thus to leave EVERYTHING and answer the call of the Lord. It is obvious that we are often hindered by various things in our effort to answer God’s call. There are indeed many who are holding on to their nets, boats and their fathers. These represent those things that contend for the attention we are supposed to give to God’s call and mission. Like Jonah did, one of the best ways we can serve God is to assist in making Him known to the world around us. We may not be required to travel to any Nineveh. In fact, there are many Ninevehs around us. Nineveh here represents those around us who are in need of God. We could attend to them not by condemning them as sinners but by making honest effort to share the word of God by our helpful and soothing words and actions. In fact, every baptized Christian is a potential Jonah and fisherman. It will be proper for us to examine how far we have gone into the Ninevehs around us and also how many fish we have been able to catch. Finally, Let us appreciate our call to be Christ’s disciples: Every one of us is called by God, both individually and collectively. The mission of preaching, teaching and healing which Jesus began in Galilee is now the responsibility of the Church.Our own unique vocation and our relationship with the risen Lord are the same as that of the universal Church. Be we religious, priests, married or single people, we are all called, and in this call we become what God wants us to be. The call, of course, begins with our Baptism and the other Sacraments of Initiation. It is strengthened throughout the years with the Eucharist and Reconciliation, healed and consoled by Anointing and made manifest in Matrimony, or Holy Orders. God is relentless in calling us back to Himself, even when we stray away from Him. Have a great and fulfilling week ahead.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 13:09:55 +0000
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