DOCTRINE AND FAITH 3rd Sun of Year: Year B

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Jonah 3,1-5,10; 1Cor 7,29-31; Mark 1,14-20: 3rd Sun of Year: Year B)

The first reading presents to us a part of the narrative of the call and mission of the prophet Jonah who was called to go to Nineveh and proclaim that God’s punishment on the people of Nineveh was imminent. At the first instance Jonah refused to embark on this mission, his reasons then were that Nineveh was a pagan city, immersed in wealth, a symbol of power and corruption. However, at the second mandate to go to Nineveh, the prophet obeyed, preached and, surprisingly, the city welcomed the message and repented of their sins and got converted. On his on part, the Lord pardoned them and relented from the punishment he had planned to mete on them. The message of this passage is very simple: The God of the Bible is not a vindictive God who is ever poised to punish but a God who is  kind and merciful, slow to anger and rich in grace and faithfulness (See Exodus 34,5-6). Even the same prophet Jonah had to admit this point as he noted  in Jonah 4,2: I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishment. 

The second message of the passage is that God does not limit his graces, benevolence and salvation only to Israel but offers it to all. God calls all, welcomes all and pardons all, so that they may be converted and listen to His voice. St. Peter alludes to this attribute of God when he enunciates: God has no preferences, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. (Acts 10,34-35).

In today’s gospel, Jesus begins his preaching with the call to conversion: The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand (literally present). Repent and believe the Good News! The term, the time has come, means that it is no more time of prophecies and promises but the time of realization. It also means that the time has arrived for God to act as the King of the universe, to establish justice and bring about the salvation of man. By saying that the kingdom of God is present among the people the passage is referring to the presence of Christ who brings the prophecies to fulfillment and inaugurates the reign of salvation. It is no longer the time of uncertainty or vacillation. But rather, a time of decision, and make choice. What is to be done? Conversion! This means changing one’s conduct and way of life. To be able to do so one has to change the way one thinks and reasons. He has to change his thoughts for the principle has it that action follows thought.  The next thing one has to do is to believe the Good News. In practical terms this would mean welcoming and internalizing the message of salvation which Jesus brings to us and allowing it to transform our hearts from where all our thoughts and subsequently our actions spring up. Thus, believing in Jesus does not merely mean accepting the truth of salvation which Jesus came to proclaim but to live in conformity with his message. It also means using the gospel as the yardstick of ones conduct. One can actually say that repenting and believing in the Good News means having Jesus Christ as our model, following his examples, sharing in his thoughts, choices, style of life and destiny, just as his first four disciples did--Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. These disciples even followed him physically along the streets of Palestine and they decided as soon as they were called, lost no time in vacillation/indecision and followed him. We can only follow him mentally and spiritually but we have to do so immediately, without procrastination, single-mindedly without ambiguity, but with fidelity and coherence. 

It seems that Paul in the second reading follows the line of thought we have seen above as he writes: ... our time is growing short...: the world as we know it is passing away. Paul does not mean that we should despise the things of this world. This is because they are real goods and gifts of God. The meaning of the passage from Paul is that we are to give in neither to fatalism nor indifference. We should not even resign to fate, thinking that there is nothing to be done and just sit and see things go on as they want. Paul rather wishes us to consider the things of the world as relative (not absolute), as means to an end and not an end itself. They are never to be considered as the alternative to eternal and definitive goods.  We need to be converted from the idols of the world and face the only living God. In doing so we have to have Jesus Christ as our foundation and in his words in the Bible and to invest, as much as possible, our lives in good works in order to gain the supreme good which is eternal life. May we in this Eucharistic celebration ask the good Lord for the graces of true and deep conversion that would manifest itself in a life of deep faith and charity to our needy neighbours. 

+John I. Okoye.

DOCTRINE AND FAITH: 2nd Sun of Year: Year B

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(1 Sam 3,3-10.19; 1Cor 6,13-15.17-20; John 1,35-42:  2nd Sun of Year: Year B)

The first reading presents to us the figure of Samuel as he was rendering cultic services in Silo’s sanctuary, where the ark of the Covenant was kept. The Lord was speaking to him but he was unable to discern the voice of the Lord and therefore missing the message. He needed Eli’s guidance to realize that it was the Lord who was calling him. As soon as he did so, he responded with all his soul disposition saying: Speak Lord, your servant is listening! As we participate in Holy Mass and other liturgical assemblies, we listen to God as he speaks and addresses us. With the guidance of the Priest and especially the assistance of the Holy Spirit we can then understand the message God is giving to us at any given moment. We should, like Samuel, follow the guidance of our Priests in order to discern the voice of God and the message being passed on. Young Samuel’s disposition should be our disposition and attitude at our prayer sessions. But often a time we seem to inundate God with all types of petitions, long lists of favours we want God to do for us. We deposit all of them in God’s ears without caring to listen to what He would want us to hear, know or do about our petitions. Prayer is a dialogue. God speaks to us and we speak to him. It should not be a one way traffic: our speaking to God only for he also has a lot to communicate to us on every single incident of our lives.  Such prayer dialogue between us and God will nurture in us the good disposition to do God’s will in our lives. This will enable us resolve with the Psalmist who composed the responsorial refrain: Here I am Lord! I come to do your will. 

One of the good news of today’s gospel reading is the revelation made by John the Baptist that Jesus was the Messiah, when he exclaimed as Jesus was passing by: Look, there is the lamb of God. Jesus was the true paschal lamb that would be immolated for the freedom and liberation of men from the slavery of sin. He is the faithful servant that was announced by Isaiah and who took upon himself the sins of the people. What John the Baptist said about Jesus made an impression on Andrew and John. Later on, Andrew declared to his brother Peter with joy: We have found the Messiah. It was in the ensuing encounter which Jesus had with Peter that He constituted him one of his disciples and the rock upon which He would build his Church.  God, through Christ, calls each one of us as his disciple, just as he called Samuel, Andrew, John and Peter. He does so in order to make us participate in the work of salvation, first of all by closely adhering to him in a rapport of friendship and then becoming messengers of his work of evangelization by bringing our neighbours in contact with Christ as John the Baptist did (who pointed Christ to John the Evangelist and Andrew) and also Andrew (who brought Peter to Jesus). 

Another good news of today’s gospel is that Jesus wishes to share his life with us, to have a deep rapport of friendship, based on deep knowledge and love. Jesus expressed his willingness to allow the disciples to experience him, and come to know his identity; a knowledge that could open a new vista for them, when in reply to their question, where do you live? he answered: Come and see.By this invitation to the disciples and by extension to us, Jesus wishes to make it clear that each of us can enter into intimate friendship with him any time we have a quiet time with him alone, at prayer, meditation and contemplation, when we encounter him in the Sacraments and when we strive to live always in the state of grace avoiding all sins that disconnect us from God. 

One of the obstacle to this intimacy and encounter with Christ and what weakens our bringing Christ to others is the sin of impurity, the sin against one’s body: fornication, adultery, masturbation, etc. Paul brings out theological points to illustrate the gravity of these sins by noting first of all, that our bodies are parts of Christ: It (our body) is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. This truth is the aftermath of baptism. At baptism we are inserted, as it were, into Christ and our bodies as such do not belong any longer to us but to Christ and as such we should not do anything we like with it. We are not, therefore, to abuse it. As we belong to Christ, we hope to rise with him. Our own bodies will also rise with him.  Another truth about our body that is consequent to our baptism is that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. We should neither defile the temple of the Holy Spirit nor grieve the Holy Spirit that abides in us. Another theological reason adduced by Paul for the avoidance of sins of impurity is that we were bought with great price. This price is nothing other than the blood of Christ.Christ redeemed us in toto, body and soul and we, therefore, should use our bodies for the glory of God. May we in today’s Eucharistic celebration ask the good Lord for the graces to be able to discern his voice and be ever willing to adhere to his will. May we also pray for the graces to know, love and be intimate with Christ, for this will enable us recognize our bodies really as the temples of the Holy Spirit redeemed with the great price of the Blood of Christ which we participate in today’s Eucharistic celebration. 

+John I. Okoye