Jon. 3:1-5,10. Ps. 24:4-6. 1 Cor. 7:29-31. Mk 1:14-20.
REV. FR. MICHAEL MELVIN KOFI MENSAH
Dearly beloved in the Lord, today, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Holy Mother Church once again presents to us the call of Christ to repentance and discipleship (Mk 1:15, 17).
If today was not a Sunday, we would be celebrating the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Today happens to be the day of the Lord hence, preference given to it over other solemnities. Anyway, happy feast day to all persons, Roman Catholic Churches and institutions that bear the name of St. Paul.
In today’s First Reading from the Book of Jonah, we heard how Jonah answered God’s calling. Jonah was called by God for a mission to Nineveh, that great city, where he was to proclaim the message of the Lord. Nineveh had been the capital of Assyria, a kingdom that was brutal in its conquests, and Israel was not spared its brutality. Thousands died during Assyria’s attempt to conquer Israel. As Assyria’s capital, Nineveh came to represent the most evil city the Middle East had ever known.
Long after Nineveh had been destroyed by the Babylonians and after Israel’s exile in Babylon, the Jews were greatly prejudiced against outsiders. It is in this atmosphere the Book of Jonah was written. The book is fictional, a didactic composition written after the Babylonian exile, sometime around the fifth century.
In this parable God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, the city that represented evil and cruelty, and told him to call for its repentance. It was a challenge for the listeners of this parable to accept that God would invite anyone outside of Israel to faith let alone brutal oppressors, but in the context of the story, God not only sends a Prophet to these evil outsiders, He forgives the city completely when it repents.
Most would have not liked the ending. They would have preferred that Nineveh would have been completely destroyed; but instead they are told to extend mercy. We, like Jonah, call for revenge and retribution, but remember God calls for mercy. But for His mercies where would you have been now?
Jonah initially refused and tried to escape from this call and he was punished (a storm at the sea and the big fish which swallowed him) but later he set out and went to Nineveh. He proclaimed the Divine Word of God, advising the sinful people that unless they repent of their sins, in forty days, their city would be overthrown.
Fearing the wrath of God, the people realized that they had sinned against Him. Immediately, they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, from the greatest to the least important, put on sackcloths. A sackcloth is a coarse cloth worn as a symbol of mourning or penitence. It is not something very comfortable to wear. But, it serves its purpose of making a sacrifice for the grace of God to be dispensed upon the sincere heart that applies this method of repentance alongside with a fast.
The people turned away from their evil ways. Consequently, God changed His mind about the calamity that He was about to send to Nineveh. Through Jonah, the faithful servant of the Lord, the people were once more united in the righteous ways of the Lord God.
My dear friends in Christ, the message of the first reading, a call to repentance, echoes again in the Gospel reading. Today we begin exploring the Gospel of Mark which we shall continue to do throughout most of this Liturgical Year. In our introduction to it today, we are given the Gospel’s two simple themes: it tells us who Jesus is and what our response should be. Jesus came to call us to reform our lives. He calls us to leave our old self and embrace God’s call to repentance and the time to do so is here and now. Just as the Israelites had to reorient their understanding of God, so do we. We need an experience of the risen Lord like Paul’s, an experience that utterly transforms us. The response of Paul to Jesus’ presence, the response that Jesus asks of us, is discipleship, a way of living that is clearly contrary to the way our culture calls us to live.
Andrew, Peter, James and John in today’s Gospel are presented by Mark as men instantly attracted to Jesus that they left everything and followed Him. Yet we discover, despite their radical departure, that they did not understand what Jesus would teach them. At some points they even try taking Jesus out of His mission. Responding to this initial call does not make us perfect. Humbling ourselves to learn from Him who has called us is paramount and that is what we all need as Catholic Christians and followers of Christ Jesus.
The Second Reading from Paul’s First Letters to the Corinthians may have been rather difficult to understand. Paul told those who have wives to act as if they have none, those who mourn as though they were not mourning, those who rejoice as if they were not rejoicing, those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world, as though they had no dealings with it.
For the present form of this world was passing away. To understand this passage that refers to one’s calling to live a spiritual life, it is necessary to review other parts of the First Letter to the Corinthians. It is necessary to ask ourselves, what was Paul talking about? We find that answer in 1 Cor. 10:11 where Paul told the Corinthians that Christians are already living in the last days, on whom the ends of the ages had come. There are no other coming ages. For Paul all they needed to do was to concentrate on the relationship with God and put aside any other thing especially those that will stand between them and their salvation.
How often have we not acted like Jonah who was unwilling initially to do as God asked? He did not want to walk into the heart of evil and challenge it. He tried to run from God’s call to face evil just as we often do. How many times have you not kept quiet on the evils in your place of work, home, society and even in the Church?
This call is a challenge thrown us. We must take the challenge to meet and experience Christ in such a way that we, through our own conversions, become more like Paul who could never doubt Christ and become more like the Apostles who despite their lack of understanding stayed faithful anyway.
My dear family of God, the call to repentance and discipleship is meant for all. Open the ears of your heart and embrace it. Remember, your response to the call is here and now because this is the opportune time. PEACE AND JOY TO YOU ALL.
