Click here to see the readings<\/a>)
\nJonah 3:1-5, 10
\n1 Corinthians 7:29-31
\nMark 1:14-20
\nJanuary 22, 2012<\/p>\nWe see a pretty lofty example of what being a disciple means today.\u00a0 Jesus is just beginning his public ministry and immediately begins to call disciples.<\/p>\n
As this point in Mark’s Gospel, we haven’t heard of Jesus doing any miracles or preaching.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All that we have been told so far in Mark\u2019s Gospel is that he was baptized by John and then tempted by Satan.\u00a0\u00a0As he begins his ministry, John the Baptist has been arrested and Jesus picks up where John leaves off.\u00a0 Jesus proclaims the same message \u201cThis is the time of fulfillment.\u00a0 The kingdom of God is at hand.\u00a0 Repent, and believe in the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n
No new profound message.\u00a0 Perhaps one might find a sense of urgency with the kingdom of God is at hand.\u00a0 No more making excuses.\u00a0 Now is the time for action.<\/p>\n
Even if they have that sense of urgency the response of Simon, Andrew, James, and John is nothing short of amazing.\u00a0 Jesus calls them and they immediately abandon their lives to follow Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If an unfamiliar face came to be and told me to \u201ccome after them\u201d my first response would probably be \u201cWho are you?\u201d and \u201cWhy should I follow you? I don\u2019t even know who you are.\u201d\u00a0 Simon and the others didn’t respond that way.\u00a0 They didn’t know who Jesus truly was but they were willing to follow him.<\/p>\n
For Simon, Andrew, James, and John to follow Jesus so suddenly they must have sensed the divine presence in Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Why else would they have followed Jesus?<\/p>\n
In coming here today, we are showing that we want to follow Jesus.\u00a0 But it is a struggle.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you but for one thing I struggle to know what Jesus is asking of me.\u00a0 I love being a priest.\u00a0 I very much want to serve God and you as his people.\u00a0 There is a lot of work to do.\u00a0 What am I supposed to do myself?\u00a0 What am I supposed to lead others to do?\u00a0 What is not for me to deal with at all?\u00a0 Where do God priorities lay?<\/p>\n
I wish it seemed so simple as for Simon, Andrew, James, and John who simply abandoned everything and followed Jesus.\u00a0 Well, it wasn\u2019t all that simple when you read the rest of the story.\u00a0 The disciples will screw up.\u00a0 They don\u2019t really fully understand who Jesus is.\u00a0 Even Peter will deny Jesus three times.<\/p>\n
We have to look at the whole story of the disciples.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The same is true with Jonah in the first reading.\u00a0 The opening verse sounds like Jonah is the perfect disciple.\u00a0 God tells him to go to Nineveh and proclaim a message.\u00a0 Jonah immediately goes and proclaims the message as God directs.\u00a0 The people of Nineveh immediately repeat and are saved.\u00a0 Sounds perfect right?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
You need to read the rest of the story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is not<\/em><\/strong> the first time God has asked Jonah to preach in Nineveh.\u00a0 If you read the whole story, the first time God asked Jonah to go, Jonah refused and ran away from God.\u00a0 Of course, you can\u2019t really run away from God since he is every way.\u00a0 As the story goes, God sent a storm to punish Jonah.\u00a0 The sailors throw Jonah overboard to save themselves from the storm.\u00a0 Along comes a large fish (a whale in the children\u2019s story) that swallows Jonah up.\u00a0 Jonah spends three days in the belly of the fish before the fish spits him back out.<\/p>\nSo when God asks Jonah a second time, Jonah does as God asks.\u00a0 I guess he got the message when he was in the belly of the fish.<\/p>\n
But Jonah hadn\u2019t really changed his mind as to why he didn\u2019t want to go to Nineveh.\u00a0 He only went out of \u201cfear of the Lord.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Why didn\u2019t he want to go?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nineveh was known as a wicked city of sin.\u00a0 Jonah thought they deserved to be punished (they did).\u00a0 Jonah also knew God was merciful and he knew if the Ninevites\u00a0repented God would not destroy them for their sins.\u00a0 Jonah wanted to see the\u00a0Ninevites destroyed.\u00a0\u00a0Of course, they repented and God did not destroy them.\u00a0 Jonah is actually mad at God for this.\u00a0 Yet Jonah has also done what God asks of him.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t always follow Jesus (especially on the first try).\u00a0 We have our own ideas (just like Jonah) of how things should be.\u00a0 We might even have someone like Jonah did who we don\u2019t want to forgive.<\/p>\n
How many times does God have to tell us something before we get it?\u00a0 For instance, we count on God\u2019s mercy for ourselves.\u00a0 Do we show mercy and forgiveness to others?\u00a0 Jesus taught us to pray \u201cforgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do we have someone we need to forgive?\u00a0 Or what other struggles do we face?\u00a0 Do we stand up for what Jesus taught us?\u00a0 Do we stand up for life and good moral conduct?<\/p>\n
Discipleship isn’t easy but we come to Jesus seeking the wisdom and courage to be his faithful disciples.<\/p>\n
Peace,<\/p>\n
Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is my homily for today (Sunday, January 22, 2012) 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B (Click here to see the readings) Jonah 3:1-5, 10 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20 January 22, 2012 We see a pretty lofty example of what being a disciple means today.\u00a0 Jesus is just beginning his public ministry and …<\/p>\n
Continue reading ‘The Struggle To Be A Disciple’ »<\/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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-aE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660"}],"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=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":662,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}