We are in the Third Sunday of the Ordinary time. All
the readings of today have ‘call from God’ and ‘the response of people who are
called’ as their crux. In the first reading through Jonah God is calling the
people of Nineveh to repentance. But this call to repentance is not explicitly mentioned,
because in the Old Testament people understood God as punisher of humans for
their wickedness. Therefore, God’s warning to destroy the city of Nineveh is
taken as a call from God to do something to amend the evil ways. In the New
Testament God through Jesus straight away calls people to repentance. Jesus is not like God in the Old Testament to
inflict fear in the people. The incarnation is a revelation that God is not a
punisher but a merciful father who forgives His sons and daughters. The people
who used to amend their ways out of fear is now with the coming of Jesus
invited to amend their ways forever with love for God and neighbor. In the Old
Testament the people of Israel did not have holistic view about their God,
Yahweh, and the way He deals with His people. In the New Testament Jesus shows
them the way God wants to deal with His people; not vengeance but through
forgiveness.
On this Sunday we have the call to repentance, the proclamation
of the kingdom of God as the Gospel passage because Jesus started this mission
after receiving baptism from John. Last week we celebrated the feast of
baptism, and so this week we have the beginning of the proclamation mission of
Jesus. The kingdom of God that Jesus preached is a reign of God in each soul. Each
of us has to be reigned by God. God reigns in us when we have love for Him and
for our neighbor.
In the second reading we have St. Paul calling the Corinthians
to lead a life that is worthy of inheriting the coming world. The three proclamations
in all the reading of today is for repentance. We need to amend our old, evil
and wicked ways not by fear of God but through our love for God and our neighbor.
When we amend our ways through love it becomes conversion. The conversion is a moving
away from something and turning toward something. Conversion is split point
that breaks the past and new. Conversion is a change of heart, which happens after
much disturbance and reflection. St. Augustine is a great example for conversion,
once moved away from old ways and turned toward new ones, no turning back! Such
is the conversion that God is asking from us today. To remain with the new ways
is difficult and challenging. To face that like St. Augustine we need to be in
constant touch with God and follow his commandments. In the Gospel we have
Jesus calling the first disciples – Peter, Andrew, James and John. They followed
Jesus after the call. Today He is calling us to follow His ways, to walk in His
footsteps so that we may remain firm in Gospel values against all evil attractions
and be reigned by God.
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