DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Jonah 3, 1-5.10; 1 Cor. 7, 29-31; Mark 1,14-20; 3rd Sunday of the Year B, Jan 24, 2021)
This Sunday’s Gospel presents to us the beginning of Jesus' ministry. After baptism and temptations in the desert, he begins his ministry with a fundamental message and an important initiative: the calling of the first disciples. The message of Jesus is: The time is finished and the kingdom of God is near; get converted and believe in the Gospel. This message aims at completely changing the orientation of our life. It is an urgent message, and Jesus is aware of it: there is no time to waste, we must act immediately; the kingdom of God has come close, we must welcome it. The kingdom of God is received in two ways: by being converted and by accepting the Gospel. Jesus preaches conversion. Conversion means detaching oneself from bad things and becoming attached to God. It is a radical change of orientation, which Jesus requires of us for our own good.
The first reading, taken from the book of Jonah, illustrates the theme of conversion. This passage narrates the mission of Jonah to Nineveh. The prophet calls the Ninevites to conversion with the announcement of an imminent punishment: Another forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed. Jonah too, like Jesus, says that the time has come and God's intervention is now inevitable. The tone of his threat seems negative, but in reality, it has a positive meaning, and the inhabitants of Nineveh understand this. When a prophet announces punishments from God, the intention is never negative, but to urge the people to act in order to avoid those punishments. The Prophet's announcement causes a sincere conversion in the Ninevites, who abandon their evil works and turn to God. The text says: The citizens of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and clothed in sack, from the greatest to the least. God sees that the Ninevites have converted from their wicked behaviour, and he can then carry out his plan, which is a plan of love and salvation: God took pity on them, and stopped the evil he had threatened to do to them. Thus, the Ninevites were saved.
In the Gospel Jesus says with the same urgency: Repent; and adds: Believe in the Gospel. In this message there is not only the invitation to conversion, but also the announcement of a Good News, that is, that God is about to intervene for our salvation, he wants to pour out his love on us, and asks us to eliminate all obstacles. God wants to offer us abundant graces, transform our life so that it may be beautiful, fruitful and motive for intense joy. We must then believe this Good News, this announcement that is, completely, positive. Indeed, the Gospel is the announcement of a victory that brings peace and well-being to men.
In the second reading, Paul's words to the Corinthians mirror, in a certain sense, those of Jesus in the Gospel. Jesus says: The time is over and the kingdom of God is near; and Paul says: By now time has become short. This means that God wants to carry out his plan of love; therefore, it is necessary to think only of it. Since time has become short, it is necessary to convert. From now on - affirms Paul -, let those who have wives live as if they did not; those who cry, as if they did not cry, and those who enjoy as if they did not enjoy; those who buy, as if they did not own; those who use this world as if they did not fully use it. These statements may seem strange to us, but in reality, they make us understand that we must re-evaluate the worth of all things and not attribute too much importance to earthly things. We are called to live in intimacy with God: this is a wonderful reality, that it becomes the most important thing for us. God wants to save us, he wants to fill us with his love: this is the only thing that matters. All other things are relative, they don’t have absolute value; therefore, we must place them in their right places. The only absolute value is the love of God, which he wants to communicate to us in order to transform our whole life. On our own part, we must give up all those possessive tendencies that keep us tied to the earth, things and values that are not really important. Our tears and our joy must be reduced, they must be considered with a certain detachment. In fact, they are not the essential things in our life. We cry for reasons that are not really valid, or we rejoice for rather superficial reasons. Instead, we should cry only for those things that separate us from God, and rejoice only for those things that unite us with him. To realize this, we always need conversion. We must detach ourselves from negative tendencies, to make our sincere and profound union with God possible.
In today's Gospel passage, Jesus calls the first disciples immediately after the announcement. Mark relates this call in an essential and simple way: Jesus passes by, sees two men - Simon and Andrew; the second time James and John - intent on their ordinary work - the first two cast their nets into the sea, the other two tidy up the nets - and he said to them: Follow me!. And they immediately, leaving everything, followed him. Mark presents these tales of vocation in such a concise form to make us understand the essentials. Jesus passes into our life and tells us: Follow me! I will make your life beautiful and fruitful. You who are now fishers of fish will become fishers of men. These episodes of Jesus' call are fundamental for all Christians. Obviously, not everyone is called to follow Jesus like the apostles, that is, leaving their professions to become heralds of the Gospel, but everyone is called to follow Jesus. Here, there is an analogy with what Paul says in the second reading: we must follow Jesus, and this is the only thing that matters; our projects must be oriented towards following Jesus. We must carry out our task with an attitude that conforms with Jesus’ call. The way we do things is more important than the very things we do. A Christian housewife, who simply cleans her house with love of God, is worth more than a politician who makes great speeches and has great power, but does it to give himself/herself importance. Validity of things depends on the extent they are done with faithfulness to Jesus' call. Before making decisions, we must always try to know and choose what the Lord asks us to do. So, we can live fully in his love. We must follow Jesus, Every Christian must, continually, renounce his own selfishness, to welcome Jesus’ love. He must leave his own concerns too centered on himself, to accept the universal concerns of Christ's charity. Thus, little by little the world will be transformed. Jesus came precisely to transform the world with his love. Many people need to accept his call and be docile to his inspirations. So little by little they will be able to change the world, bringing peace, joy and love to it. +John I. Okoye
(graphics by chukwubike)
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