3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 21st January, 2024

 “Until now you have been a fisherman, now you will become a fisherman of men. There is a change, even a radical one, that does not destroy what you have always been but rather makes it mature to its fullness.” May the good Lord in this holy Mass give us the grace to live the life worthy of our call as Christians. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Jonah 3,1-5.10; Psalm 24 (25); 1 Cor 7,29-31; Mark 1,14-20; 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 21st January, 2024)

“The time has become short,” writes the apostle Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 7,29). “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand,” Jesus proclaims in Mark (1,15). Jonah also brings Nineveh an announcement regarding time and its end: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed" (Jonah 3,4). This attention to time, which dominates the liturgy of the Word on this Sunday, is closely connected to the theme of choice. The time is approaching, and our decision is urgent, which cannot be postponed.

For Paul, the brevity of time changes our relationship with the world, with history, and with the relationships we weave in it. Since Jesus died and rose again, the world has been transformed. His figure passes not because it dissolves into nothingness, but because it is transfigured in the promised fulfillment. The world takes on a new figure: from being the only horizon in which our life is called to play out, it becomes a prophetic sign of a future world, which we certainly still have to wait for, but which already descends into our history, becomes present in it, like a yeast that transforms it, giving it a new meaning. Even the world we know, the relationships we live in it, the commitments we take on, everything must become a sign of something else, that is, of that kingdom of God which, as Jesus announced while walking through the streets of Galilee, is now finally "near" (Mark 1,15). Then there is a "how" that wedges itself between us and reality. “From now on, let those who have wives live as if they had none; those who cry, as if they were not crying; those who rejoice, as if they did not rejoice; those who buy, as if they did not own; those who use the goods of the world, as if they did not use them fully" (1 Cor 7,29-31). We need to understand this "how" well so as not to misunderstand it. It does not mean that what we experience loses depth, and meaning, is no longer worth anything, or that we even have to interrupt the relationships - even marital ones - that characterize our existence. On the contrary, the Apostle's invitation is to continue living what we already live, but by replacing it in a broader gaze - which goes beyond our horizon and manages to glimpse the promised fulfillment, which gives a new meaning to every aspect of our life, existence. The kingdom of God is now so close to our lives that our lives can no longer remain the same. If I cry I know that someone will console my tears forever. If I rejoice, I know that this joy, which over time is always provisional and precarious, will become full and definitive on the coming day. If I possess goods, I know that the true good to be desired is another. Even the love between a man and a woman becomes a sign of that love that will be complete and timeless in the love of God and in the communion of saints. This is the real decision to be made, the conversion to be lived. The Ninevites, in the first reading, convert from their evil works, because they accept Jonah's warning, and above all because they believe in God. They begin to believe in a God who does not punish, but uses mercy. Their conversion corresponds to the conversion of God himself, who "repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them and did not do it" (Jonah 3,10). It is not that God waits for our behavior to decide how to behave towards us. Rather, it is our conversion that allows us to know what God's authentic face is. If we turn to good, we encounter the God of good, who turns his gaze of benevolence and mercy towards us. Remaining prisoners of the logic of evil prevents us from knowing this face of God and from experiencing his love for him.

Every conversion is, radically, going out of oneself to turn to God and thus receiving a different look at reality, and learning to judge everything according to the logic of that "how" announced by Paul, and being able to discern the proximity in every reality of the Kingdom that becomes truly close to the most ordinary and everyday places of life, to your throwing your nets into the water as you already did yesterday and the day before yesterday. There the Lord comes close and then your life changes, because before your eyes his word opens up a different horizon: "Come after me, I will make you become fishers of men" (Mark 1,17). The newness of God, the unparalleled beauty of his promise, matures within your own life, in your everyday life, to make it different from within. It is not another role that is imposed on you from above, with force, almost with violence. It is rather a new shoot that the Lord slowly matures in the ancient trunk of your life. Until now you have been a fisherman, now you will become a fisherman of men. There is a change, even a radical one, that does not destroy what you have always been but rather makes it mature to its fullness.

Time is short: we have to decide. Jesus passes by and “immediately” calls James and John, just as a moment earlier Simon and Andrew “immediately” left their nets to follow him (see verses 20 and 18). Right away! There's no time. We must convert and believe now. With this awareness: converting to Jesus and believing his word means making his promise explode within our lives, which opens up to an unexpected horizon. The world is transfigured by the light of the Kingdom that now inhabits it, thanks to the gift of God that brings it close to us; thanks to our followership that make us welcome him. + John I. Okoye