Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Ps.:25:4-9; 1 Cor. 7:29-31; Mk 1:14-20
“Repent and believe in the Gospel” is the proclamation coming from the beginning of time and “In the beginning was Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1-3)”. What happened in the beginning to make this the central message from the beginning until now? The disobedience of Adam and Eve happened and it remains the core of the sin of humanity. Just as the city of Nineveh was called to repent by Jonah before 40 days have passed, the Church is called to enter into a period of repentance during our Lenten season for forty days. The ashes we receive come with the proclamation “Repent and believe in the Gospel” as one of two proclamations.
As we recall, Jonah is a reluctant prophet who resists God initially. For Jonah, Nineveh is not worth saving even though it is “an enormously large city”. His message was one of repent and believe in God. Have you noticed that as cities grow larger the greater the “sin city” they become? Why? It is because the values of the population become as diverse as the people who live there and inclusion promotes a tolerance for all types of behavior. Nineveh was no exception so for the people to listen to Jonah and believe in God is a great testimony to their underlying faith and the power of God’s mercy to work in their hearts and “proclaim a fast”. “God saw their actions how they turned from their evil way”.
Would Jonah succeed in today’s metroplex? Jesus is the living word of proclamation coming through the Church, easily accessible through media platforms and yet the more interconnected we are as a global society the more suppression to silence the voice of the church, the people of God we encounter. The messaging of today is that there is no place for “church” within the “state” and the state governs every aspect of civil society. When the church is controlled by the state as it is in some nations then the messaging takes on the culture of the state and anything that opposes the voice of the state becomes the enemy of the state. State culture rules as we begin to see authoritarian control with charges of intolerance, racism, xenophobia, homophobia and domestic terrorism.
In today’s times Jonah would be accused of proselytizing interfering with the “safe space” of the state. Jonah is a reminder that we are in this world but not of this world. We hold to the tenets of the church and we pray “Teach me your ways, O Lord”. We grow learning habits, some good and some not so good. All habits become a part of our internalized identity but the Lord’s love is greater than allowing us to just be ourselves. He desires us to give testimony to his presence in our lives by being the best he created us to be in his image. The best comes through sacrifice, a will to change, and a desire to grow in the Lord. “Teach me your ways, O Lord” is a good prayer for change in our thinking, our feeling, and our commitment to change our ways into God’s ways.
Often when we sin, when we harm others, when we are called on our actions we want to say “I’m sorry” and let it be done with. Where are our actions of repentance, what is the change to come? This is where we need to humble ourselves and pray for the strength to make a change in our lives for the greater good. St. Augustine reminds us that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We have to will it in prayer and God is faithful to a repentant soul. In order to make a change and “let go” we need to recognize that by letting go we create a void that the behavior was meeting and we must replace it with something. That “something” is a different thought, a different behavior, a different spirit and a different purpose. We can make a lasting change when we let go of sin and the “something” we hold onto becomes the person of Jesus who fills our void, and the change in spirit invites the Holy Spirit to take possession of our hearts. When we learn to “act as of not” of this world we fill the vacuum with the kingdom of God already in our midst. We come to fill ourselves with the love of God in the celebration of the Mass.
One of the Lord’s teaching for today is “act as of not” having wives, not weeping, not rejoicing, not owning. Now before us men get into trouble by “acting as of not” having wives or responsibilities or anything else we can image getting away with just remember there is a “dog house” in every home and it does not require you to have a dog. The “dog house” comes from the avoidance of listening to the ways of the Lord. One of my favorite saints is St. Dominic who formed the Dominican order. The origin of the word Dominican is Dominicus meaning “Lordly” or “belonging to the Lord”. However, there is a play on the word in Latin as Domini canis, meaning “Dog of the Lord”. So even the dog of the Lord receives scraps from his Master. Praise God that we can repent and believe in the gospel of mercy.
The Lord’s ways are the path of justice, mercy, goodness, and charity. The Lord’s way is one of detachment for “the world in its present form is passing away”. The harder we try to hold onto this world the more hopeless we become. When we “act as of not” we are to practice temperance with all that we value in recognition that this is a temporal life. Our marriage, our children, our home, our friends, our work and even our pets are a gift that is passing from this world. Love ‘em all with a love for the eternal that is a recognition that all our gifts come from God and return to him as an act of our service to him.
I had a widow share with me how guilty he felt for feeling he loved his wife even more than God, and misses her tremendously. I reminded him his love for his wife was through his sacrificial giving of himself for her and by doing so he also loved God. It is a unity of one through, with, and in God. It is the fulfillment of the Great Commandment “to love thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” and “thy neighbor as thyself” (Mk 12:28-34).
We are living in times of great distress as the pandemic continues to take the lives of many. Families have to go and drop off their loved ones at the door of hospitals and cannot visit them. When they die, they cannot receive their last rites, the funeral homes set limits in attendance and many cannot participate. Gravesite services have replaced the Mass. Our elderly is restricted to the home to avoid contact with others or risk being infected. Vaccines do not guarantee that you will not get the virus but will help to limit the impact of the disease if contacted. Act as of not carrying the cross can become overwhelming. Where is our hope? Our hope is in the Lord who reigns in all that is seen and unseen. We cannot always understand his ways but we can always trust in his mercy and love. Our hope is in turning to each other and reaching out to the needs of others. We cannot be overcome by fear but allow our concerns to turn to safe practices and to better health practices. We are to be vigilant and prudent in the choices we make.
Social media has already started raising the warning that the end of time is at hand raising fear that the final judgment could be now with all the violence, hate, natural disasters and pandemic that we see happening in this world. Fear is not the appropriate response for people of faith when every day is a call for reconciliation with the Lord. We await the Lord when we rise in the morning in hopes of his coming to us each day and when we go to sleep in thanksgiving for his presence with us in our daily journey for his kingdom is at hand since the day of his birth and remains with us until the end of time and the beginning of eternity.
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