Repent and be Reconciled

 

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

24 January 2021 – Salem, St. Mary’s

Job 3:1-5, 10

1 Cor 7:29-31

Mk 1:14-20

 

    Praised be Jesus Christ!

St. Mark’s Gospel starts off today:

“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

        This coming Monday is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, which concludes our annual celebration of the Octave (eight days) of Prayer for Christian Unity. We do not just work but rather we pray for Christian Unity because it is something which depends first and foremost on our cooperating with the divine will. The unity of Christ’s Church is not simply manmade. Unity among Christians requires of each one of us conversion, renouncing sin and totally embracing the Gospel of Christ. We all have a part to play, but it cannot happen just because we want it or think it something reasonable. In the real world, in the Church and before God, that is, in this world centered as it must be on Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, things always reach their climax when hearts change, when people confess their sin and repent of their evil ways.

On the road to Damascus, Saul, later St. Paul, was blinded by the light which is Christ. He repented of his former ways, of having persecuted the Church, and hence Paul became the Apostle to the Gentiles. He spread the faith like nobody else in those early days of the Church. Paul’s message was the message of Christ. He preached conversion; he lived conversion. He was a repentant soul; he was most attentive to the word of God. St. Paul let that word transform his life.

We heard in today’s first reading from the Old Testament Book of Jonah that the great city Nineveh was saved from doom and destruction because its people listened to God’s prophet and gave up their sinful ways. Everybody in that city was moved by Jonah’s message threatening judgment from God, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed…” and from least to greatest, they repented in sackcloth and ashes and God spared the city and all who lived therein.

“Repent” is the word which best sums up Jesus’ message to the world, His call to you and to me. Before the verses 14-20 from the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, which we heard today, the very first verses of that Gospel tell of the Messiah’s Precursor, of John the Baptist, who prepared the way of the Lord, by preaching a baptism of repentance. John’s word too, his cry was to repent. Repentance is basically a change of heart and it is what gives us life by leading us to Christ. We are not autonomous agents. Our identity, our welfare is in community, bound up in the mystery of God.

         The Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity is about our hope, our desire for unity on many levels: among Orthodox Christians and Catholics, certainly, but it is also about overcoming differences between Catholics and Protestants. Above all, it is about beseeching God for reconciliation among Catholics themselves who may be at odds with each other over any number of issues big and small.

We pray for unity because we cannot succeed on our own to bring it into being. Unity is God’s work, just as saving Nineveh came about not through Jonah’s polished rhetoric or convincing speech, but because God touched hearts. Those people chose in freedom to tremble and bow before the Almighty, yes, Who through the preaching of Jonah threatened them with destruction. They believed and their hearts changed.

“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

        Having lived outside of the United States for so long, especially the last five years in Switzerland, I get people here at home asking me whether it was not terribly oppressive to live over there in those secularized societies, as opposed to in the good old United States. Usually, I respond by telling folks about the wonderful Catholic laity of all ages whom I had the privilege of getting to know over there. Indeed, the front-page story in most of central and northern Europe is anti-Catholic, in the sense even of so-called Catholics (especially church employees) refusing the Lord Jesus and insisting on going with trends having nothing to do with Him and His message of repentance. Over there the lines between faithful Catholics and let us call them “neo-modernists” are more clearly drawn than they are here. In the face of a semblance of decency, people here have a much harder time sorting out just where they stand in terms of faithfulness to Christ. That is why the word “repent” is so important. As hard as it is for some folks to grasp, radical conversion of heart, changing our way of living, is what opens us to the Kingdom, allows us to enter into Christ’s reign and share His victory.

        Jesus in the Gospel called Simon and Andrew, James and John from being fishermen on the Sea of Galilee to being fishers of men. He called them to leave their fishing tackle, father and family behind to be His apostles. The message was and will always be uncompromising: “Come, follow me!”

        There should be no surprise in any believing person’s mind as to why the Roman Catholic Church requires celibacy of its priests or why religious orders of priests, sisters or brothers call their members to live the Evangelical Counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. It is Christ, Who through His Church, calls us to Himself and without compromise. Repenting, changing our hearts, means leaving all behind, especially my own will over and against that of Christ.

        They tell me that young people today are skeptical about the commitment involved in Christian Marriage, in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony until death do us part… Repent! Repent! Repent! Whether it is Christian Unity or our living out discipleship in any walk of life, it requires of us a change of heart in order to adhere totally to Christ’s Law and draw our strength from Him and His Gospel.       

        Let the lives of the saints, their generosity to Christ’s call, and the stunning example of the Blessed Virgin Mary encourage us to submit our lives to Christ and find grace in His Kingship over us and there the fulness of light, happiness and peace!

        Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI