The Kingdom of God is at Hand; Repent and Believe in the Gospel

01-21-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC

The Readings for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B emphasize the urgency for propagation of the Good News and the need to repent and return to the right relationship with God who is merciful. Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian empire which destroyed Northern Israel, killed many of its inhabitants and dispersed the remnants on exile. Since Jonah was an Israelite, he hated and despised the people who humiliated and destroyed his people, the human weakness in the prophet Jonah would have loved nothing more than seeing the Ninevites destroyed. So, he first tried not to go preach to Nineveh as God instructed him, and when it became obvious to him that running away from God and the mission to which he was sent was not going to be possible, Jonah decided to attend to the mission but with barest minimum effort.

Nineveh was a large city which took three days to go through, Jonah spent just a single day’s walk to preach and threatened the city with the simple declaration, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed”. Instead of preaching to the Ninevites in order to provoke repentance, Jonah simply delivered to them an absolute statement of imminent destruction. Despite Jonah’s deficient preaching and his intentional denial of hope to Gentile Nineveh, the people responded by engaging in a mass repentance, declaring and observing a fast and puttng on sackcloths to demonstrate their sorrow for sin and repentance from evil. God demonstrates that He is the Universal God who is ready to pardon whoever repents by pardoning the sins and the Ninevites and repenting of the evil that was to befall them. Like the Ninevites, we urgently need to repent of our sins and seek a righteous relationship with God. The Lord will pardon the sinner who acknowledges his mistakes, is truly sorry for them and asks for mercy. What God will not condone is the outright self deception of denying our sinfulness and culpability as well as the arrogant refusal to repent.

St. Paul reminds us in the Second Reading that the time for our repentance and conversion will not run infinitely. Through the Parousia or through individual death, Christ will return and with His coming the time allowed for our repentance shall elapsed. Thus, we need to apply some urgency in heeding the call to conversion and holiness which God continues to make in the life of each of us.

Jesus continued with this theme of repentance in pursuit of Divine Mercy when in the Gospel, after the martyrdom of John the Baptist, He preached the message of repentance and called on the people to believe the Good News with greater urgency. Mark reports that He also chose the first four of His closest collaborators by simply inviting them to “come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Those who were called seemed to have understood the urgency of Christ’s message and mission, so they left everything behind and followed Jesus. Just as God called Jonah and sent him to Gentile Nineveh, so did Jesus call this quartet to send them to the ends of the earth in order to call people to repentance and so help sustain universal participation in the Kingdom of God. The response of the Apostolic quartet sets a very good example for us in our response to God’s call. They left behind family, occupation and their comfort zone to leap into the deep with Jesus and follow Him. What is Jesus calling us to leave behind in order to allow a more robust relationship with Him in the Kingdom of God? Could it be pleasure, the crave for and idolatry of money, the convenience of being in control? What is going to be our response to this call? For some, the response may be truly dramatic like quitting a job or relocating to a space the Holy Spirit leads us, to such as going to the seminary or joining a religious order. For others, it may involve quitting certain hobbies, obsessions and even personal preferences in order to facilitate prayer and more meaningful relationships with God and people. Wherever we are, may our response be prompt and positive.

Please be kind and may God bless you.

Fr. Manasseh