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.