Homily
(2) 3rd Sunday of Year B: Fr. Michael Ufok Udoekpo
Readings:
Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Ps 25:4-9; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20
A Merciful and
Selfless God, Slow to Anger, abounding in Love!
Today
we live in the 21st century, standing on our faith traditions. But when we open our Bibles; when we
read our Scriptures, especially the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, we learn so much about God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, whom we
are daily called to imitate. He is holy, generous, merciful, slow to anger and
kind. We learn so much about Christ who once changed water into wine, healed
the blinds, dialogued with the Samaritan woman, raised Lazarus from the tomb,
ate with tax collectors, and encouraged Zacchaeus to come down from the tree,
whom he later went to din with. He loved on the road to Calvary and forgave sinners
on the Cross. He is selfless, humble and reaches out to everyone. He is
persistence in calling us to himself, regardless of our "narrow nationalism," gender, language and
culture, or which part of the continent, we may come from. Today’s readings
seem to point towards the same direction.
In
today’s Gospel, the selfless Christ knew a time would come when he would be “handed-over”
he quickly initiated the calls of his disciples, beginning with Peter, Andrew,
James and John, who were originally fishermen. Thank God, they left everything
to follow Jesus, including their net, boats, parents, family and workers. They became
fishers of men. What does this mean? Then became champions of God’s love,
preachers and promoters of justice, unity, sources of divine mercy, and agents of true evangelization, viceroys and conduits
of the inclusive of the message of God’s love.
This
was something that was lacking in the Corinthian community that Paul was preaching
to, in the 2nd reading. Selfishness, rivalries, abuse of marriages, sexualities,
and overt worldliness perverted this community. Some of them forgot that God’s thoughts
are not our thoughts. Many could not
realize on time that everything is this world, our talents, our homes, money,
power, wealth, our physical bodies our temporary and transitory. We better make good and timely use of them,
for the common good; for the glory of God, for the service of the community,
and the entire church.
Jonah,
in the first reading, also felt into the same trap of selfishness about God’s
love, mercy and blessings. He is called by God to bring God’s message of love and
forgiveness to enemy- folks in the far- East of Nineveh, in Assyria. Unlike
Peter, Andrew, James and John, in the Gospel, Jonah resisted, and sailed the
opposite direction, as far West as he can to Tarshish, I guess, to the direction
of the present day Spain. In spite of Jonah’s reluctance, God has a way of
insisting on his love and callings. No matter what, he keeps calling us. And
perhaps, reminding us that, his divine thoughts, are not our human thoughts.
Granted
that Jonah had problems on the way: shipped wrecked, swallowed by a big fish,
tormented by nasty weather, he would eventually, by the grace of God, carry out
God’s mission of preaching repentance to
the Assyrians, non-Jews and the Gentiles, as Paul did in Corinth.
As
funny and satirical as Jonah’s story may sound, together with the rest of today’s
readings, it offers us a spiritual mirror to see ourselves as God’s
instruments. God has called us to various missions which we must do selflessly,
with all our talents, energies and enthusiasms. This story also offers us a
mirror to see ourselves, how we still are, sometimes today in this 21st
century: petty, intolerant to others, selfish and jealous to our neighbors, in many ways. And sometimes
unwilling to let go, unwilling to admit that God’s love and mercy extends to all persons of every
land and nations, Jews and Gentiles, gender and culture.
Therefore,
If God is merciful, selfless, initiates all calls, kind, forgiving, and compassionate, he wants
us in our various states of life, offices and positions to be forgiving, and merciful to those, who may
have offended or hurt us, and be loving
to all those we meet on the way!
