Homily for 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B 2018
Jonah 3:1-5,10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20
Introduction, Scripture and Theology
Being the good Catholics that you are, you must remember last Sunday's gospel and you must be wondering: did we not read another passage last Sunday in which Jesus called Andrew and Simon and perhaps John?
Actually the two passages, one from John and the other from Mark, are telling us about two different incidents, callings and we need to listen to them both.
- For one thing, in last week's gospel, John the Baptist was still alive and well and doing his ministry. You remember he pointed Andrew to Jesus. But in today's gospel, John the Baptist has been arrested by Herod..
- Also, the location of the meeting is different. Last week Jesus met them at the Jordan River where John the Baptist was baptizing; today he meets them up in the north, in Galilee, where these men were born and lived.
- But the really important difference is that the second meeting seems to be a development on the first. Perhaps we can think of the first meeting as the interview and hiring for the job, while the second meeting is when the new hires are given their job descriptions. For in last week's gospel Jesus called them to discipleship; today, he is calling them to mission, telling them: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."
The analogy of fishing and fishermen is interesting. These four, Simon and Andrew, James and John, were fishermen, just like many people here in Louisiana. But now he is going to make them fishers of men. With all due respect to fishermen, why did Jesus pick fishermen and not pick people with the skill set usually associated with the kind of ministry he was offering them? He could have picked people with public speaking skills like lawyers – and there were many lawyers, especially among the scribes and Pharisees. He could have picked people with some religious training like the priests – and there were many priests, especially among the Sadducees. What does the fisherman have to bring to the ministry of Jesus Christ?
Actually the fisherman does bring something to the table: patience and humility.
- I was recently watching the movie Forrest Gump for the millionth time and noticed something that I had not observed before. When Forrest begins his shrimping business to fulfil the promise he made to his dead buddy Bubba, at first things don't go well. He does not catch much shrimp for quite a while. But he does not give up. That is the patience that a good fisherman soon learns, a quality that a good minister of Christ should have.
- But the fisherman also needs humility to realize that much of his success is out of his hands. Many factors will determine if he catches any fish at all. Going back to Forrest Gump, he was only successful because a hurricane wiped out his competitors and he was the last man standing. In Christ's ministry too, ministers have to depend on God's providence and not just on their own gifts. God is the power behind the work of their hands.
And so, it is fitting that Jesus called fishermen and tasked them with redirecting their skills for the mission of fishing men and women, the ministry of the Church.
Fishing men is exactly what the Prophet Jonah does in today's first reading. The Lord sent him to the city of Nineveh, which you might recall was a foreign city. There he had to deliver a message of repentance to the people. And so Jonah told them: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
Nineveh was a very large city needing three days to walk through it. But Jonah had barely gone through a third of the city, when the people were convicted by his words. Not only did they now believe God, but they also proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth, including the animals if you read on the rest of the passage. God saw their response and he forgave them. You could say that Jonah fished these people out of their sinfulness.
Christian Life
The fishing trip on which Jesus sent his apostles continues today. What Jonah did for the people of Nineveh, the Church, its ministers and indeed all of us have to continue doing today. Are we still fishing? Who and where are we fishing?
If I were to describe the fishing that needs to be done today, we would be here until the cows come home. But let us just focus on three events that we are marking this week alone and the kind of ministry they remind us of.
- Catholics mark the week of January 18th to 25th as the Week of prayer for Christian Unity, working to remove the barriers that divide Christians.
- Meanwhile this past Monday we remembered the legacy of Martin Luther King, reminding us of the biblical themes of freedom, peace and justice.
- This coming Monday we shall mark the 45th anniversary of the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision, recommitting ourselves to uphold the biblical injunction to preserve life, especially the life of the unborn.
The divisions among Christians are a scandal that we must eradicate. While working for ultimate unity, we can start with modest goals. Such goals might include learning more about other Christians, or even other non-Christian religions even as we strengthen knowledge of our own faith. We shall find that while we have some very fundamental differences, there is a lot about which we agree. That is why ecumenical work and inter-religious dialogue is something that both the Church and individuals must continue to promote.
It should not be lost on us, that some of this ecumenical work happens, when we fight for peace, freedom, justice like Martin Luther King did, when we uphold the life of the unborn together with our Christian brothers and sisters as well as people of other faiths, as happened last Friday during the March for Life in Washington DC, and Saturday here locally in Baton Rouge. When we go fishing, sometimes let us invite other Christians, other people of faith along?
Given the events of the past weeks, let me suggest one more river in which we must fish. This week I learnt a new phrase, "the dinner table test." How do good people react when a person at the dinner table says something outrageous, racist, xenophobic or just plain false? Surely Christians don't just keep quiet and smile. Certainly Christians don't agree with them. The Christian who passes this test is the one who confronts the wrong-doing, perhaps even asks the person to reverse their wrongdoing like Jonah told the Ninevites, and may even issue the threat of departure if the wrong is not righted immediately. In so doing we are not only standing up for the people who have been denigrated, but we are also trying to fish out the wrong-doer from the sea of sin and evil.
Conclusion
As we go about our fishing of men and women, let us remember that the life of a fisherman, the fisherman who earns his bread by fishing, is a hard one. Jesus is not inviting Andrew and Simon, James and John and of us you and me, to go on a cosy, leisurely fishing trip that people do on a full stomach and certainly not fishing out of a fish tank. His fishing trip is back-breaking, dangerous and obviously reeking with a fishy smell.
That is why we must not get too comfortable in our ministry, by fearing confrontation with sin or withholding truth so as not to offend. In sending us out to fish men and women, Jesus is imposing upon us a tough job, but one whose haul will be great, for it will gather all God's children into his heavenly kingdom.
