Homily Ordinary 3B: The Pope and Bishops: fishers of men and women today

 Homily for 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B 2021

Jonah 3:1-5,10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

Introduction

We have just heard how he picked four fishermen to be his apostles: Simon and Andrew, James and John.  Today’s corporate hiring experts, however, might seriously question the criteria Jesus uses in choosing his Apostles. 

The experts might ask: why Jesus picked fishermen and not 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.

Scripture and Theology

But perhaps Jesus knows something about fishing and fishermen that makes them the ideal candidates for his ministry.  That is why he says, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  For the fisherman of fish brings some qualities to Christ’s ministry of fishing men: patience, humility and fishing itself.

Recently, I was watching the movie Forrest Gump for the millionth time and noticed something that I had not observed before, that fishermen are patient.  When Forrest begins his shrimping business to fulfil the promise that he made to his dead buddy Bubba, at first things don't go well.  He does not catch much shrimp for a long time.  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 for God.

Jonah, in our first reading was also an unlikely candidate for his mission.  God called him and sent him to Nineveh, a foreign city probably in present-day Iraq. But Jonah ran away.  Instead of going East, he got onto a boat heading to the West, to get as far away as possible.  We know the story of how there was a great storm, and after he drew the short straw to indicate he was to blame, he was thrown overboard by his fellow sailors to calm the storm.  And then he was swallowed by a fish, in whose belly he stayed for three days, just like Jesus will.  While in the belly and after he realized the error of his ways and returned to his mission.  The reluctant candidate would go on to deliver the message to the people, telling 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.  Like he tends to do, God used the services of Jonah to fish these people out of their sinfulness and bring them to conversion.  He anticipates the work of evangelization that Andrew and Simon, James and John will do for Jesus.

Christian Life

The fishing trip on which Jesus sent his apostles continues today; in fact, the Pope and the Bishops today are the successors of these apostles Jesus commissioned to become fishers of men.  What Jonah did for the people of Nineveh, preaching a message of repentance, our shepherds continue to do today.  Are we listening and converting like the Ninevites did?

This past week was marked by three events of national significance.

·        On Monday we remembered the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

·        On Wednesday we marked the inauguration of a new President and Vice-President and other national leaders of the country.

·        On Friday, we marked the 48^th anniversary of the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision.

Our shepherds, Pope Francis and the Bishops, used these events as occasions to remind us about certain themes from the teaching of Jesus.

To mark Martin Luther King’s birthday Pope Francis wrote a message that said: “In today’s world, which increasingly faces the challenges of social injustice, division and conflict that hinder the realization of the common good, Dr King’s dream of harmony and equality for all people, attained through nonviolent and peaceful means, remains ever timely.”  How often we need to hear again and again that racism is a sin and work to ensure that every human being is treated with equal dignity, regardless of their race.  How often we must listen to our shepherds preach to us a message of freedom, peace and justice.

For his presidential inauguration message, the Holy Father prayed that the new administration “will be guided by a concern for building a society marked by authentic justice and freedom, together with unfailing respect for the rights and dignity of every person, especially the poor, the vulnerable and those who have no voice.”  He also asked God to guide the efforts of the administration so that they can “foster understanding, reconciliation and peace within the United States and among the nations of the world in order to advance the universal common good.”  Given the state of our country, we need to listen very attentively to this message for unity and reconciliation, both as a country and as a world.

For their part, the US bishops also congratulated the new president and administration and pledged to work with them for the common good.  Like the Pope they expressed the same hopes of national healing and reconciliation, founded in America’s foundation to be one nation under God committed to liberty and equality for all.  But in very clear terms they also called out the new administration’s “policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender,” as well as those policies that threaten “the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences.”  This is also a message that we need to hear today, just like the people of Nineveh.  We must recommit ourselves to uphold life, especially the life of the unborn, who like Pope Francis said, have no voice of their own.

Conclusion

The life to which God calls his messengers is not an easy one.  That is why Jonah could be forgiven for running away.  As we know the life of a real fisherman who earns his bread on the water, is similarly a hard one.  Jesus is not inviting Andrew and Simon, James and John, our Holy Father and Bishops, to go on a cozy, recreational fishing trip, that people do on a full stomach and cooler filled with beer.  This is not fishing out of a fish pond or fish tank.  This is one back-breaking, dangerous fishing trip.

That is why we must pray for our shepherds, the successors of the apostles, that they may be courageous in preaching the message of Jesus: “repent and believe in the gospel.”  May they preach this message in season and out of season.  May they, with God’s grace, with our help, bring in a great catch, and so gather into his heavenly kingdom, all God's children, all our brothers and sisters.