Embarking on the Mission with Enthusiasm, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time–Year B

My Sisters and Brothers:

     We all know the story of Jonah the prophet.  The longer version of the story includes much more than what we hear in our first reading today (see Jonah 3:1-5, 10).  In fact, the prophet didn’t at all want to go to preach to the people of Nineveh as God had called him to do.  After all, he thought, they were Gentiles, and they were a people unworthy of his attention.  Even when he was successful, and the people of Nineveh listened to his preaching, Jonah was still unhappy!   The people of the city turned away from their sins, reformed their lives and believed in God, but Jonah continued to flee from them.  Perhaps because of Jonah’s pride, he only very reluctantly responded to what God wanted him to do in service to those people.

     The story in today’s Gospel is much different: the disciples of Jesus were much more willing to take up the mission to which they were called.  In fact, as they “dropped their nets” and followed Jesus, he promised that he would make them “fishers of men and women” (see Mark 1:14-20).  They understood that they were being called to lives of service–lives in which the preaching of the Good News of the Kingdom to all people would be a primary responsibility.  This preaching, and the call to conversion, would be for all men and women of every nation on earth!

     Unlike Jonah, the disciples became joyfully zealous for their mission, and they were freely willing to serve all of their fellow human beings.  They even reached out to those whom they possibly would have otherwise preferred not to have served, such as the Gentiles, the Samaritans and other foreigners.  Like Jesus, the disciples enthusiastically embarked on their mission to reach out with love towards all, even to tax-collectors, to prostitutes, and to other sinners.

     Today, as we reflect on our Scripture readings, let us pray that we might be more like the disciples of Jesus who surrendered all, even the comfort of their own families, their ways of life, and their traditional ways of thinking about others–especially about those who were “different,” and about those who came from other faith perspectives.

     Following Jesus is all about giving witness to our faith, and  it is about serving a God who loves each one of us “more than we can ever possibly imagine.”   May we each faithfully share this message by the way we respond to Jesus, by the way we live our lives, and by the way we treat all of our fellow human beings.

Praise God!  Friar Timothy

 

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