HOMILY FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B

 

THE CALL TO FOLLOW CHRIST IS A CALL UNTO REPENTANCE

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Readings: Jonah 3:1-5, 10, 1Corinthians 7:29-31, Mark 1:14-20

 

Last Sunday, we read about the call of Eli and that of the first disciples of Jesus as recorded in the gospel according to John. This Sunday, the three readings continue this same theme of the call to follow Christ. However, what the readings of this Sunday add to this theme is that the call to follow Christ comes with a correlative call unto repentance. What this means is that one who has been called to follow Christ must be ready to leave behind his/her former ways of life especially the ones that go against the new life or mission he/she has embraced.

The first instance of this is found in the first reading which is the famous story of Jonah and his preaching ministry in Nineveh (Jonah 3:1-5, 10). In that passage, Jonah was sent by God to go and preach the message of repentance to the sinful people of Nineveh. After Jonah had preached to them, the people believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The point to be noted here is that after hearing the words of Jonah, the people repented without hesitation. They took the message to heart and at once, abandoned their old ways of life. For us, how ready are we to accept Jesus’ message of repentance that is preached to us every now and then? The opportunity we have now may be our last chance.

In the gospel reading, the evangelist Mark tells the story of the call of the first-four disciples of Jesus.  Before they were called, the four of them were ordinary fishermen. When Christ called them, he turned into fishers of men. The invitation to follow Christ came to them suddenly. It was truly a difficult one as they were not given any time to prepare. Still, their response was immediate and uncompromising. Mark adds that while Peter and Andrew left their nets and followed Jesus, James and John left their father, Zebedee in the boat together with the men he employed and went after Jesus. This is the radical turning point that the call to follow Jesus entails. We ourselves have to identify our own nets that we need to leave behind in order to follow Jesus more effectively. These may be the nets of worldly pleasure, of addiction, insecurity, anger and other vices.

Finally, let us be reminded that each one of us has been called to follow Jesus in a unique way. To each one, Christ gives a special vocation- a special call to follow some particular path of life. Not all vocations are the same. Some like Jonah are called to “go” while others like the first-four disciples are called to “come and follow Jesus”. In whichever way we have been called to follow Christ (religious life or the married state), our prayer is that the Lord may grant us the grace to fulfill the demands that our different vocations make on us.