The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – January 24, 2021

 The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – January 24, 2021 

First Reading: Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Psalm: Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 (4a)

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Gospel Acclamation: Mark 1:15 

Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

Introduction

Psalm 25 is a Psalm of David, and in verses 8 through 9, he reveals one of the salient characteristics of God: Good and upright is the LORD; thus, he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble his way. God loves it when people turn from their own godless plans, humble themselves, seek instruction from Him and start following His plan.

The Catholic Church teaches that we are inherently disordered creatures at birth, due to sin and the Fall. We are disordered in our reasonings, our plans, our preferences, our interests, our desires, our priorities, our passions, and our appetites. We are not totally depraved but rather we are disordered, out of whack. We are meant to be ordered towards God and in harmony with His plans and ways in all that we think, say, do and feel. I like that word, “disordered,” because it suggests the possibility and process of being set right with God, of being reoriented towards Him and His thoughts, to His ways, and His plans for us.

Sunday’s readings show us how to move from being disordered in relation to God to being ordered towards Him.

First Reading

The First Reading is taken from the third chapter of the Book of Jonah. I like it because both Jonah the Israelite prophet and the inhabitants of the powerful, violent and cruel Assyrian imperial capital of Nineveh, the enemies of Israel, are clearly in the same condition. They both have been disordered and disobedient to God. When Jonah received his call from God to go to that city in the east and warn them of their impending doom, he fled in the opposite direction, to the point farthest west he could get to, thinking he could escape God on a ship. He found out that there is no escape from God, and his story has provided us with perhaps the greatest fish story ever told, when God uses a “big fish” to bring him back.

In calling him, God’s plan for Jonah was to work through him one of the greatest evangelistic campaigns of those times by giving the Ninevites an opportunity to turn to God in repentance and escape to their impending judgement.

God finally gets Jonah to Nineveh, and he is only one day into the three-day walk across the city when his message outpaces him throughout the city as the inhabitants spread Jonah’s message. There is a great repentance from the king on down, to the people and even the animals. In sackcloth and ashes, the inhabitants cry out to the God of Israel for mercy.

In this scene, we are given an illustration of the first step on the path to being ordered rightly towards God. We must make Him the priority for a period of examination, to understand where we are in our relationship with Him. We must acknowledge our disorder — that is, our distance from Him, our unbelief, and our resulting disobedience to Him. We need to cry out to Him for His mercy and place ourselves once again in His hands to begin the second step of the process, which we find in the Psalm.

Psalm

The psalmist reveals that the second step after repentance is to humbly submit to learning and heeding the Lord’s truth and ways, depending on Him rather than on ourselves. God, in His mercy and compassion, loves to help us do this.

Second Reading

The Apostle Paul reveals that to continue this path toward being ordered to God, He must remain our highest priority. This world is not our home, it is temporary. We are just passing through it; we are strangers and aliens in it, because heaven is our true home.

Gospel Acclamation

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the Gospel. (Mark 1:15)

Gospel

In the Gospel reading, Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James and John, all fishermen by trade, to come follow Him and become fishers of men, rather than catching fish. He is calling us to do the same. This is the last step in the process of becoming ordered towards God. As we follow Him, we are to help others to come into an ever deeper relationship with God.

Conclusion

From our former state of disorderedness, the process of becoming ordered towards God is a lifelong, repetitive process of repentance, learning and following God in humility as we share the joy of our ever renewing and growing relationship with God and with those around us by thought, word and deed. Today is always a good day to start.