3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Jonah goes to the great city of Nineveh to tell them that God is angry and they will be destroyed if they don’t mend their ways.  They believe him and everyone repents.  Pretty amazing.

Jonah’s journey to Nineveh takes a few twists and turns.  If you remember, God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and he decides to run away because he does not want to do this work.  When Jonah tries to escape by ship, God sends a storm that is swamping the ship.  Jonah is thrown into the sea by the sailors and everything quiets down.  Jonah, however, is swallowed by a whale and remains in the whale for three days.  Nineveh’s story is Jonah’s story.  They have run away/turned away from the Lord.  They have to make a radical shift back to the Lord just like Jonah did when he splashed into the sea.  Jonah is a sign that all can be well again with God.  Nineveh sees the sign and turns its’ life around.  All is well between the city and God.

Have you ever felt separated from God?  What do you need to turn around in order to be closer to God?

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Many scholars believe that St. Paul believed that Jesus would return very soon to earth for His Second Coming.  This short reading presents that belief very clearly.  He tells people to give up everything in order to receive Jesus well.  This reading surprises me to a certain extent.  “let those having wives, act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, etc.”  He is telling people to detach from everything so that you can meet Jesus without distraction.  I don’t want to criticize St. Paul, however, it would seem to me, if you have a wife, you should be a better husband.  If you weep, ask Jesus to comfort you.  If you rejoice, thank Him for the rejoicing.  The world may be passing away, but let’s pass away well.

Mark 1:14-20

I was pointing out the other day to the weekday Mass crowd that this Gospel is an interesting one.  We are reading from the first chapter of Mark.  Jesus is just new on the scene and he says, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”  Since it is so early, the people who hear him are probably saying, “Hey, what’s a Gospel.”  Jesus is preaching something entirely new.  The people probably don’t have vocabulary to understand the message.  Still there is something about Jesus that makes Simon and Andrew, James and John follow him.  He himself is the Gospel.  “Repent and believe in me,” he is saying.

What is it about Jesus and His message that attracts you?  Repels you?  Would you be ready, like Simon and Andrew, to risk everything for someone you haven’t seen before?

 I invite your comments.