Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday of the Word of God
Lectionary: 68
Reading I
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 II
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,
Our God is not an angry, vengeful God. There is no desire to punish us mercilessly and for that punishment to have an ever-lasting effect on our existence. Yes, there are times written about in the Old Testament where God appears to be a God of destruction and anger, but when examined closer there is something else that is very evident. With a threat a punishment there is also a promise of mercy. With a voice of disapproval there is also a plea to change one’s ways. With anger there is also a profession of love. There is bad in the world and there is the presence of evil. This provides us with constant choices that can either strengthen or weaken our relationship with God. With every choice will come more choices and more opportunities that will either enrich our experience on this earth and into the next life or will drive us down the road to perdition. God has given us the gift of free will and the opportunity to exercise our own thoughts and actions. It is entirely up to us to accept a relationship with God and the gifts that flow from it or to ignore Him in favor of our wants and desires which are usually rooted in the flesh. He does know what is best for us and just as a father is expected to do for his children, He offers instruction. These we not have to accept but when we ignore God there will always be consequences and some sort of punishment which is inevitable unless there is regret and repentance.
Perdition is defined as, “a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unpenitent person passes after death.”
The key to understanding this state of punishment and also being punished by God is the word unpenitent within the definition. It is when we refuse to admit our wrongdoings and when we refuse to change our ways that we face some sort of punishment. This punishment, at times, can in fact come from God or in the form of consequences to our actions. In both circumstances we are at fault. God always attempts to guide us into the right direction but ultimately we have the final choice as to which way we want to go in this life and the next. The choices are constantly offered and it is up to us to make the right ones. If we truly feel bad about something we did or where we are going in our lives then it is up to us to change what we are doing; making the adjustments necessary to “right the ship.” God is not only here to give us advice and counsel but He has also given us many tools to aid us: Sacred Scripture, worship, prayer, and the Traditions of the Church. It is up to us to engage God in relationship and to use these tools.
The story of the Prophet Jonah is a wonderful story of forgiveness and redemption. Nineveh was a massive city; known to be the largest city in the world at the time of its height. It was an administrative city within the Assyrian Empire and was filled with a crazy mix of people and cultures which would be expected in a city like that. With it also came the dark side of a lifestyle that would be commonplace in a metropolis of that size. This is what God was addressing when He sent Jonah to preach of Nineveh’s impending doom. What happened afterwards was an amazing conversion as the people within the city repented of their actions and worshipped God. This may have been the greatest conversion in the story but it was the last of many. The entire Book of Jonah professes God’s forgiveness. Jonah was forgiven for running away from God when he was called to the Prophetic Office and the sailors at sea, turning to God in their moment of peril, were also protected and showed mercy. The Love of God and His endless mercy permeates throughout the entire book and reminds us that, in the words of the Prophet Joel,
“ …everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
There is urgency regarding the situation that we can find ourselves in. We are living in a world that is dictated by sin and evil; in our very own Ninevah. Everything that opposes God is present throughout society. It is sometimes hidden and sometimes it is not. Only good comes from God which means all that is bad and defected has come from someplace else. That someplace is our own corruption (Original Sin) and the act of us welcoming evil into this world. When we choose earthly things over that which has its origins in God we are siding with something that is less powerful than God and something that is ultimately not good. Putting God first in our lives cleanses ourselves from past transgressions and makes us live our lives in a different way: a way that puts good first instead of evil. When we experience the goodness of God we will want to do good things and our experiences will be so much more fulfilling than anything that can be offered in the physical world. To experience God’s creation with God and to live our lives with God brings us closer to the perfect being that we all once were. The earlier we do this than the more we will be able to get out of this life and the one thereafter.
When Jesus was preaching by the Sea of Galilee He spoke about repentance and the Kingdom of God being at hand. We are all called to repentance because we are part of the Kingdom of God and, as Jesus said, “ The kingdom of God is within you.” We are an intricate part of God’s plan and it is through our actions that the kingdom is realized. The Kingdom of God can be defined as the perfection of everything that God created. When we journey towards this perfection, being with God and listening to God, we are working with God instead of against Him. We too then become a disciple of Jesus. Jesus wants all of God’s creation to become His disciples so He can then turn the kingdom over to the Father. This all starts with an invitation to repentance, forgiveness, and mercy. Accepting this invitation brings us into the arms of a loving Father. This is where we all should strive to be.
Deacon Tom
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
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Repent! Here we are in Ordinary Time and it sounds like Lent! The beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ begins with Jesus calling His followers to repent. Repent in this context means to change the direction of one’s life. And we see with clarity where Jesus is pointing us: Believe in the Gospel!
The first reading today is the story of Jonah preaching repentance in the city of Nineveh. The preaching of Jonah was completely successful and the whole city repented including the rulers. Although Jonah did not want the city to repent but rather wanted it destroyed, we see that the people respond to Jonah’s preaching and God “repented” of the evil which He had planned.
We need to hold this in our hearts: the people repented and God also repented. Both were willing to change the direction of their intentions. We don’t normally think of God repenting but surely the repentance of God is part of the Gospel that Jesus is proclaiming. God’s only intention is our salvation and our good. Whenever God is presented as angry in the Scriptures, it is because God loves us and the hope is that God’s anger will bring us to repentance and then God Himself will repent. This probably is not the way that we think of God but we need to listen to God’s Scriptures and discover again God’s love for us.
The second reading is from the First Letter to the Corinthians. We are told in this small section that the world is passing away and that our actions must change. We must put all of our energy into seeking God and the ways of God.
Then we come to the Gospel of Saint Mark again. Jesus preaching the Gospel! So often we only think of the Gospel as the preaching about Jesus Christ. Even in the Old Testament we find the word “gospel” in the Greek translation and is usually translated as “good news.” What is the good news that Jesus preaches? It is this: believe that God loves us and sends His Son for our salvation! As always, if we won’t accept this Good News, nevertheless it is true. Our challenge is always to accept the Gospel given to us in Christ Jesus and to be so moved by it that we ourselves draw others to know the love and mercy of God.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
Today’s Gospel has Jesus setting out and preaching after the death of Saint John the Baptist. He is preaching John’s message at this time: Repent and believe in the Good News. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
For Jesus the Kingdom of God is always at hand, just as it is in our lives. We have a choice to live in the Kingdom or to ignore the Kingdom. Perhaps we can be indifferent to the Kingdom, but in time that means that we ignore the Kingdom.
Everything that Jesus does is important to help us understand Him. He is surely the One who comes in the name of the Lord. He preaches repentance but later He also preaches love. These two preachings are not exclusive of one another. Real love requires us to repent all within us that is not of love.
In contrast to the preaching of Jesus, the first reading today gives us Jonah, who did not want the people of Nineveh to repent. In the short passage we are given today, we are given only the preaching of Jonah and the response of the Ninevites. They do repent and God changes his attitude towards them. We know that God does not change and that these descriptions are simply telling us that the Ninevites turns to God and were faithful after the preaching of Jonah. God always loves us and in some way our conversion brings glory to the Lord and we describe that as God being happy with us.
The second reading, from the First Letter to the Corinthians today, reminds us that this present world is passing away. We can look at this reading and tell ourselves that the world is still here. Or we can realize that our world is always changing and that the more we live in Christ, the more this world passes away because we are moving from dark to light, from despair to hope, from resistance to God towards the love of God.
For our Ordinary Time Spirituality we can look at all three readings as inviting us to change, to repent, to live in a new way. The choice is ours each day in our ordinary lives. We can respond to the Lord and allow Him to change us or we can resist the Lord. Today again the choice is ours.
CHRIST IN THE DESERT MONASTERY
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