Sunday, January 26, 2003

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings:

Jonah 3: 1-5; 10: The Ninevites renounced their evil ways

1Cor 7: 29-31: Time is growing short

Mark 1: 14-20: The Reign of God is near!

This first reading, taken from the tiny book of Jonah, serves to prepare the way for reading the gospel of Mark, which we begin to do today and will continue throughout all the Sundays in ordinary time this year. Like Jesus, Jonah is also sent by God to proclaim his salvation, to call human beings to conversion. Like Jesus, Jonah also experiences human weakness, the temptation to flee, to avoid bearing the weight of God’s will offered to him. Jonah finally goes to the pagan city of Nineveh, the great capital of the Assyrian empire, and proclaims, like Jesus, the saving coming of God, with conversion as the only option. Jonah is an accusation against all types of nationalism—centralism, integrationism, racism—which attempts to keep any human being away from the loving mercy of God the Father. The tiny book of Jonah was written in a difficult time for the Jewish people, when they felt the temptation to take refuge in their privileges, considering them solely theirs, and to condemn all other peoples who did not share their culture or religious faith. Through Jonah, God is telling the Jews that their salvation must be shared with all nations, even with oppressive ones, as was the Assyrian nation.

A lesson of universalism, of maximum tolerance, of the loving openness of God’s embrace, wanting to bring all human beings into his house. A lesson that is as valid in our times of exclusiveness as in the ancient times of the Old Testament.

The reading of the 1^st letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians can also be enlightened today by the gospel of Mark: in light of the reign of God launched by Jesus’ actions—his preaching, miracles, disagreements and especially his death and resurrection—all human realities acquire a new meaning. Whether buying or selling, laughing or crying, marrying or remaining celibate, everything is different and its value is different. The only thing that will not change is the saving will of God, which Jesus came to get underway. That is why Saint Paul can say “what this world puts forth will end”; in other words, that God makes all things new, establishing the utopia of his Reign where the poor and sorrowful, sick and condemned, excluded and offended of the earth are rescued and embraced, and where the rich and powerful are urgently called to conversion.

After narrating the beginning of the gospel of John the Baptist, with the messianic anointing of Jesus in the River Jordan and his temptations in the desert, Mark relates, in very compact sentences, the beginnings of Jesus’ public activity. It is the humble carpenter of Nazareth who now travels his region, the prosperous but badly reputed Galilee, preaching in the towns and cities, on the crossroads, synagogues and squares. His voice reaches any who wish to hear him, excluding no one and demanding nothing in return. A naked and vibrant voice like that of the ancient prophets. Mark summarizes the entire content of Jesus’ preaching in these two aspects: God’s reign has begun—the waiting period is over—and in the face of God’s reign, the only option is to convert, embrace it and accept it with faith.

Many kingdoms recalled Jews who listened to Jesus: the very recent reign of Herod the Great, bloodthirsty and ambitious; the reign of the Hasmoneans, descendants of the Maccabean liberators; kings that had exercised the high priesthood and oppressed people at the same time, as much or more than the occupying Greeks, the Seleucids. They also recalled the old kings of a remote past, converted into figures in golden legends: David and his son Solomon, and the long list of his descendants who had exercised totalitarian power, almost always tyrannical and exploiting, over their people for almost 500 years. What king was Jesus talking about now? About the one announced through the prophets and yearned for by the just. A divine king who would guarantee justice and righteousness to the poor and humble and would banish the violent and oppressors from his sight. A universal king who would erase borders between peoples and would make all nations converge on his holy mountain, including the most barbaric and bloodthirsty, in order to install an era of peace and fraternity in the world, comparable only to the paradisiacal era before sin.

This reign of God that Jesus was announcing 2000 years ago throughout Galilee, continues to be the hope of the poor of the earth. That reign that has been underway since Jesus proclaimed it, because his disciples continue to announce it, those who He called to follow him in order to entrust them with the task of gathering up people of good will in the nets of the Kingdom. It is the Kingdom that the Church proclaims and that all the world’s Christians strive in thousands of ways to build. They are all the reflection of the loving will of God: curing the sick, giving bread to the hungry, satisfying the thirsty, teaching those who do not know, forgiving sinners and welcoming them to a fraternal table; denouncing, with words and deeds, the violent, the oppressors, the unjust.

It is up to us, as it was for Jonah, Paul and Jesus himself, to once again raise the banners of the reign of God and proclaim it to all in our time and in our nations: to the poor who suffer and to the rich who must convert, until God’s loving will is done for all beings in the universe.

For Personal Consideration

We often think that being a Christian means ratifying all the articles of the creed and accepting all the dogmas and proposals that the Church makes to us with a seamless mind. We forget that what is essential is not in our minds but in our hearts and in life. That what is essential is a personal encounter with God’s project, his proposal, in Jesus’ Cause. What is my faith? A system of thought and beliefs, a simple friendship with Jesus, a passionate vital choice of his Cause (God’s Project, his Kingdom! the reason I live)?

For the Community’s Consideration

- Previously, the word “conversion” was only used for adopting a religion, or for changing from one religion to another. Vatican II popularized a more “common” use of the concept of conversion: we all need conversion, which no longer means adopting a religion or changing religions but rather “turning around, with all that we are” (“con-version”) towards God and his project. Question: but when we preach the gospel to someone who is not Christian, does “conversion” mean changing religions and accepting Christianity? Does the concept of conversion, referring to non-Christians, also need to be reformulated? Could today’s readings shed some light on this?

- Today’s gospel is “Jesus’ first sermon”, so to speak. And Mark places it at the beginning of his gospel as a programmatic manifesto. It has all the central elements of what will be Jesus’ very preaching. Let’s comment on it.

- Today’s gospel and all the gospels highlight the central importance of the Reign of God in Jesus’ mission. The Kingdom is not one more element but rather the very center. If we don’t understand this, we don’t understand Jesus nor what it means to be a Christian. What is “kingdom-centeredness”? What does this word mean? What is it different from? (In the Casaldáliga-Vigil book, “The Spirituality of Liberation” available in the Koinonía library—there is an entire chapter on kingdom-centeredness, if it is helpful).

For the Prayer of the Faithful

- That the Church may continue to proclaim the Kingdom to all and to itself as well as the need to convert ourselves to it, embracing the Good News. Let us pray.

- That all Christians who totter or waver when called to live their faith find in Jesus the necessary strength not to fear anything or anyone. Let us pray.

- That we may know how to live in continuous conversion, knowing that this will make us happier and more human. Let us pray.

- That the Good News of the love of God be received and embraced by the peoples of all nations. Let us pray.

- That we may always live according to what we believe and give witness before all of true values. Let us pray.

Let us Pray

God, our Father, You who can do all, help us to convert ourselves to you every day, so that we always live according to your will and produce abundant fruits of Love and Justice. You who live and give life forever and ever. Amen.

Taken from Diario Biblico (Servicios Koinonia) with permission.

Index of Diario Biblico