{"id":1540,"date":"2015-01-25T12:56:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-25T17:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2015-01-25T12:56:07","modified_gmt":"2015-01-25T17:56:07","slug":"3rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/3rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

3rd<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\nJonah 3:1-5, 10
\n1 Corinthians 7:29-31
\nMark 1:14-20
\nJanuary 25, 2015<\/p>\n

Having been baptized and following the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus begins his mission to proclaim the gospel of God.\u00a0 In the three lines that follow (This is the time of fulfillment.\u00a0 The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel) <\/em>we find a summary of everything Jesus is about.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to change<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Immediately Jesus begins to call disciples.\u00a0 He calls Simon and Andrew, and James and John, all who immediately <\/em>respond.\u00a0 They don\u2019t ask any questions, like what it means to follow Jesus or what will it take, how much will they need to give up.\u00a0 Without questions they follow Jesus.\u00a0 Remarkable!<\/p>\n

Going back a few hundred years earlier we hear the story of Jonah.\u00a0 The Word came to Jonah to go and preach God\u2019s message to the Ninevites.\u00a0 Seemingly, without even knowing the message he will preach, Jonah heads for Nineveh.\u00a0 Another great response to God by a disciple!<\/p>\n

Well, actually there is a little more to the story.\u00a0 I did say seemingly right?<\/p>\n

This reading picks up halfway through the Book of Jonah.\u00a0 Remember the story of Jonah and the large fish?\u00a0 It happens before this.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the story of Jonah and the \u201cwhale\u201d is told as a children\u2019s story but do you remember why Jonah ended up in the belly of the fish?<\/p>\n

What we heard in today\u2019s reading is not<\/em><\/strong> the first time the Lord called Jonah.\u00a0 The first time Jonah tried to run and hide.\u00a0 He ended up in the belly of the fish as corrective punishment.\u00a0 Jonah had some time to think while in the fish.\u00a0 He repented.\u00a0 So when God calls him a second time, Jonah goes.<\/p>\n

We should ask ourselves why Jonah refused at first to deliver God\u2019s message.\u00a0 One might think he was scared.\u00a0 Being a prophet is not an easy task.\u00a0 Telling people they are sinning and must repent is not a way to become popular.<\/p>\n

However, in Jonah\u2019s case, fear is the not his primary motive for trying to run and hide.\u00a0 He knows God wants him to tell the Ninevites that they will be punished if they continue to sin.\u00a0 Jonah doesn\u2019t want to tell them because he knows if he does, they will repeat and God will not punishment.\u00a0 Jonah\u2019s problem is that he wants them punished.<\/p>\n

Jonah preached a message of destruction that led to the people repented in sackcloth and fasting.\u00a0 John the Baptist called people to repentance.\u00a0 Jesus called people to repent.<\/p>\n

What do we do with the call to repentance?<\/p>\n

Do we change our own ways?\u00a0 Do we even listen to see if we need to change or do we just assume we must be right?\u00a0 Just because everyone else is doing the same thing doesn\u2019t make it right.\u00a0 Look at the city of Nineveh.\u00a0 The whole city was sinning and didn\u2019t even realize it because it seemed \u201cnormal\u201d to them.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the saying, if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Everyone else doing it doesn\u2019t make it right.<\/p>\n

We need to listen to God to know what is right.<\/p>\n

How about sharing the message to call others to repent?\u00a0 Do we?\u00a0 Are we afraid?\u00a0 The fear can be real as not all church teaching is popular.\u00a0 I often struggle to know when to preach an unpopular message and to find the right words.\u00a0 So I pray for the wisdom and understanding to know the right words and the courage to say them.<\/p>\n

Now, none of you have to stand up in front of the entire congregation to preach but how about in your family, small groups, or even just one on one.\u00a0 Will you speak God\u2019s words or do you just try and keep the peace, often by saying nothing?\u00a0 The problem here is that saying nothing can often be interpreted as saying it\u2019s OK.\u00a0 Conversely, we don\u2019t need to get in fights over it.\u00a0 We say what needs to be said and left it at that.<\/p>\n

Backing back to Jonah, he didn\u2019t want to preach repentance because he wanted the Ninevites destroyed.\u00a0 Do we act the same way?\u00a0 Perhaps at work, we don\u2019t speak up so someone else gets into trouble and then we can get their job.\u00a0 Or how about with our siblings?\u00a0 Do we point out when they are doing something wrong or do we let them get into trouble just to see them punished?<\/p>\n

Repentance.\u00a0 It\u2019s something we all need to think about.<\/p>\n

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3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Jonah 3:1-5, 10 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20 January 25, 2015 Having been baptized and following the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus begins his mission to proclaim the gospel of God.\u00a0 In the three lines that follow (This is the time of fulfillment.\u00a0 The kingdom of God …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-oQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1541,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}