Homily Third Sunday of Year B:
Fr. Michael Ufok Udoekpo
·
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!
The times we live in today are quite challenging, yet we stand strong on our faith traditions. But when we open our bibles; when we
read our scriptures, especially the four Gospels: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. He later went to
din with him. 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 of God’s universal
love and mercy!
In today’s Gospel, the
selfless markan Christ knew a time would come when he would be “handed-over”, paradidomi.
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 in this
world, our talents, our homes, money, power, post of duties, wealth, and our physical bodies our
temporary and transitory. Meanwhile, 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, during his time,
also felt into similar 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,
unforgiving, 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!
Reflection Questions:
1.
How do relate to Jonah’s
familiar story and the call of the disciples in today’s readings?
2.
How often do we allow mercy
and misery to co-exist?
3.
Does today’s readings not remind us
of Pope Francis’ papacy, particularly his theme on “miserecordia et misera (misery and
mercy)? Think also of his motto: "Miserando atque eligendo."
4.
In what ways do we share God’s
love with members of our faith communities?
