Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily
Since 2019, Pope Francis designated the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time as a day dedicated and devoted to the celebration, study, and dissemination of the Word of God. Known as Sunday of the Word of God, we are all encouraged to grow in our knowledge and love of Scripture and our Risen Lord who is in our midst speaking to us and a time as the Church to also strengthen its bonds with the Jewish people, our brothers and sisters in faith and to pray for Christian unity.
The first reading for this 3rd Sunday of Ordinary time is from the Book of Jonah. Scholars believe that the Book of Jonah was written sometime after the Babylonian exile of the Jews.
The reading speaks of Jonah’s visit to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, located roughly in the region of modern Syria. He went there, at God’s command, to preach conversion.
Preaching conversion in Nineveh was a tall order, and the Jews who first heard this reading knew exactly how difficult the assignment was. No city on earth had the image of evil and vice that surrounded Nineveh. Nineveh, after all, was the capital of Assyria. Over the centuries many neighboring powers invaded, and overwhelmed, the Holy Land. None of these invaders matched the Assyrians for bloodthirstiness and brutality. To convert the people of Nineveh would have been regarded as almost impossible.
In the second reading the church offers us a passage from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Paul was challenged in leading the Corinthian Christians to a fully devout Christian life. The city of Corinth was what Nineveh was to the ancient Jews. Corinth was known around the Roman imperial world as a center of vice and licentiousness. This distinction said very much since vice and lewdness prevailed throughout the empire. The apostle called upon the Christians of Corinth to remember that time passes quickly, and that life is short. They had before them two options. The first was life in Jesus, a life that is everlasting, but requiring fidelity to the Gospel and the Gospel’s values. The other option was eternal death, awaiting those who spurn the Gospel. St. Paul like Jonah was calling all to conversion and to lives of holiness.
In the gospel from St. Mark we hear that John the Baptist has been arrested. The reading continues to say that Jesus is preaching that the “kingdom of God is at hand. Repent,, and believe in the gospel.” What follows is Jesus’ call of Simon and Andrew, brothers and fishermen, to be followed by the call of James and John. The Lord’s call was sudden. The brothers were unprepared, yet Jesus and the offer of salvation caused them to drop everything and follow him.
What exactly did Jesus say to the two brothers. Did Jesus just approach them as he did Peter and Andrew saying, “Come after me?” Was there a longer conversation that Mark does not record? Whatever happened, we know that the encounter had a powerful effect because James and John “left their father, Zebedee, in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.”
The word of God has particular power, that is, it can touch each person directly. Do today’s readings directly inspire you to repent? The disciples would never forget the words they heard that day on the shore of the lake, by their boats, in the company of their family members and fellow workers: words that marked their lives forever. Jesus said to them: “Follow me, I will make you become fishers of men.”
Jesus did not appeal to them using lofty words and ideas, but spoke to their lives. He told the fishermen that they were to be fishers of men. If he had told them: “Follow me, I will make you Apostles, you will be sent into the world to preach the Gospel in the power of the Spirit; you will be killed, but you will become saints”, we can be sure that Peter and Andrew would have answered: “Um, thanks, but no thanks. We’ll stick to our nets and our boats!” But Jesus spoke to them in terms of their own livelihood: “You are fishermen, and you will become fishers of men”. Struck by those words, they come to realize that lowering their nets for fish was too little, whereas putting out into the deep in response to the word of Jesus was the secret of true joy.
The Lord does the same with us: he looks for us where we are, he loves us as we are, and he patiently walks by our side. As he did with those fishermen, he waits for us on the shore of our life. With his word, he wants to change us, to invite us to live fuller lives and for us to put out into the deep together with him.
As modern day disciples of Jesus, we are called to live in holiness participating in Jesus’ mission. Our first and foremost call known as our universal vocation is to know, love, and serve God in this life so that we can know, love, and serve him eternally in heaven. Our objective is to receive God’s grace through the sacraments so that we can receive glory later. Simply put, we are called to cooperate with God in his work to save our souls.
After our universal vocation to holiness, things get specific in our primary and secondary vocations. In our primary vocation we may be called to live in holiness either in marriage, the single state, the priesthood, or religious life. It is in these primary vocations that we live out our mission to witness in self-giving love.
As our universal vocation gives us an overarching purpose in life and our primary vocation the framework for achieving that goal, our secondary vocation is what we do on the path. For most of us this means our profession or work. It also applies to our community involvement, Church ministry, or simply bearing the various crosses and trials that come our way in life. It’s our plan of action for living.
How does one discern his or her primary and secondary vocations despite the competing forces of the world, power, prestige, and control? On this Sunday of the Word of God, may I suggest praying with the Bible. Someone once said, the Bible is God’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. In the Bible God speaks. We listen. If you need help finding your vocation, the help is there. If you need help understanding your vocation, the help is there. If you need help being faithful to your vocation, to which you’re already committed, the help is there. Our help is in God’s words in scripture.
May our prayer at this Holy Mass and in response to God’s call in our lives be the words for today’s Responsorial Psalm, “Teach us your ways, O Lord. Guide us and teach us…In your kindness, remember us because of your goodness, O Lord.” Amen.
Dcn. Ronnie San Nicolas
