Deacon Tom Anthony

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 68

Reading 1 Jon 3:1-5, 10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying:
"Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you."
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD'S bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, "
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. (4a) Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice
and teaches the humble his way.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.

Reading 11 1 Cor 7:29-31

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.

Alleluia Mk 1:15

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mk 1:14-20

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.

My Brothers and Sisters,

 We are called by Jesus Christ to abandon our life as we know it and embrace the Christian Way. It is through this act that Jesus then becomes our guide, teacher, and advocate. The world is indeed passing away. It is being changed by those being influenced by the presence of Jesus Christ in their lives and by others choosing to embrace temptation and sin. Through these individual actions society is being shaped and formed. The Kingdom of God is slowly being revealed while, at the same time, the reality of evil is being unmasked. We all constantly stand at a fork in the road, offered constant choices which will lead us in either direction. At first, these choices might seem difficult but, through the exercise of our faith,  the Love of God offers direction.

The readings from Sacred Scripture today act as a warning bell. Creation is not eternal. Our lives within God’s Creation are limited. How we conduct ourselves will affect which road we will take and who we will bring with us. We have been given the gift of free will and are encouraged to use it. With this conduct comes consequences in this life and the next. If we are to truly experience joy and freedom now then we must accept Jesus’ invitation to live with Him and love Him. This love has the power to overcome anything that threatens to overwhelm us if we surrender to it. Without Jesus’ love this life becomes hollow and empty; filled with sorrow and disappointment.

Our conscious is a beautiful thing. It is Jesus working within us. As long as we listen to Him, there is always time to correct our behaviors and make the adjustments necessary to become closer to Him. The past cannot be changed but the future always offers more roads to choose from. Jesus is always walking beside us, pointing the right direction to go in. There will be times when His advice is ignored and we stumble along into dangerous territory but even then He will offer a helping hand or point out a way out of the mess that we created.

Take the example of the prophet Jonah. He was sent to a gentile city, Nineveh, to proclaim its destruction in forty days. This served as a warning to all of those within the city who did not recognize God for who He was and who refused to follow Him. The citizenry repented and God showed mercy. The people of the city did not change their ways out of fear but because their eyes were opened to the realization that the lives they were leading were indeed leading to their destruction. There was a better way and they saw it. Their conscious was their guide and it led them to redemption. We all have that opportunity through Jesus Christ. There is nothing that is too broken that cannot be repaired through the Love of Jesus. He will heal us and correct our actions if only we let Him.

When Jesus called to Simon and Andrew, they too immediately saw a different way through Jesus. They were drawn to Him, abandoned their lives, and followed Him. When we pray, focus on our relationship with Jesus, and live our faith, that same longing because evident within us. It can be described as a sort of surrendering to God’s will and an understanding of what He wants. What God wants is very simple. We are the ones that make it more difficult than it really is. He wants us to love Him. An expression of love is obedience and trust. It is through this obedience and trust that a new life is revealed and our full potential is recognized.

The only struggles that we will encounter when we start walking with Jesus and allow Him to be our guide are the ones we will create ourselves. This will be a continuous struggle as Paul warned us in his Letter to the Romans. He tells us that the flesh is constantly at war with the spirit because they are incompatible. Our flesh is defect because of Original Sin while our spirit is drawn to God. We must heed this warning and not let the flesh overcome the spirit. It is the flesh that will lead us down the wrong road. When we follow the spirit, it will naturally bring us closer to God. And closer to God is where we should want to be.

Deacon Tom