Lectionary 68: God Calls Us to His Goodness & Helps Us Get There

Key:

What these passages tell us about God

What these passages tell us to do

Commentary/observations

Reading 1 JON 3:1-5, 10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you." So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD'S bidding.

Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, " when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.

Responsorial Psalm PS 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. (4a) Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD, and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD; thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble his way.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.

Reading 11 1 COR 7:29-31

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.

Alleluia MK 1:15

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 1:14-20

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them,
"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.

He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.

1.    God is nothing but good; He is kind and compassionate.

2.   God calls us to Himself. We see that not only in the first reading, the psalm, and today’s gospel, but throughout scripture. See, for example, Proverbs 8:4, 7, & 34; Isaiah 55:3; and Matthew 11:28-29. That is well summarized in the very first paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. (emphasis added).

3.   Because God wants us to share in His goodness, He calls us to turn from things that separate us from His goodness—to repent.  He does not do that to deprive us, but to clear the way for far, far, better things, namely the things inherent in the perfect, individualized, loving plans He has for each of us.  

4.   Sometimes the things we must turn away from are not bad in of themselves, but they hinder our union with God in our particular circumstances. The second reading and today’s gospel are examples of that.

5.    God provides very real helps in making those turns; as the psalm puts it, He “shows sinners the way. He guides the humble … and teaches the humble his way.”

A.   He sends folks to inform and help us; that’s what Jonah was doing in the first reading and that’s what Jesus told Simon and Andrew he would equip them to do.

B.   He directly helps us in making those changes, that’s what happened to Jonah before he got to Nineveh, and what Jesus did with the Simon, Andrew, James, and John as he changed them from fishermen into fishers of men. Sometimes the help and resulting change is compressed and dramatic (think about Jonah in the storms and the belly of the whale) and other times it is more gradual (think of Simon, Andrew, James, and John as they travelled with Jesus before His ascension and the Holy Spirit after that).

C.   The psalm describes the key to benefitting from those helps: humility. God “guides the humble … and teaches the humble his way.”

What We Can Learn from Jesus’ Nativity: Jesus’ Circumcision and Presentation; Mary’s Purification (Luke 2:21-24)

Luke 2:21-24

When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception. ²²And when the day came for them to be purified in keeping with the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord- ²³observing what is written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord-²⁴and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is prescribed in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

1.    This passage, read together with Leviticus 12, indicates that the Holy Family was in Bethlehem for at least 41 days (eight days after Jesus’ birth for circumcision and 33 more for purification).

A.   Their life was upended during that time. They were away from their home, Mary’s family, their social supports, routines. That would have been particularly hard if they continued to stay in/at the manger; that would have been at least as challenging as living in a hotel room with a new born. Further, they had few means to soften those hardships. See Luke 2:24 and Leviticus 12:8.

B.   The reason God built that into His plan is not fully knowable from our perspective, but perhaps:

i.     It was to give the Magi time to catch up to the Holy Family. See Matthew 2:1-12.

ii.    It was a time of training/preparation. We see that in the lives of other great servants of God. Moses spent years on the “backside of the desert” learning the terrain/environment he was going to lead the Hebrews through. David was trained in multiple ways during the time Saul was chasing him. The Apostles were trained during the time they travelled with Jesus before His ascension. Maybe Mary was being prepared for the tumult/upheaval/fluid circumstances she would go through during Jesus’ public ministry and after His passion/ascension.

iii.   If those were indeed God’s purposes they are another example of His using something on multiple levels, as discussed at point 8 of What We Can Learn from Jesus' Nativity: The Visitation (Luke 1:39-45).

C.    Whatever God’ s purposes were for this time, Mary and Joseph probably didn’t fully understand them as they were going through it. We see that dynamic elsewhere in Jesus’ infancy narrative and scripture generally. See point 4(C) of What We Can Learn from Jesus’ Nativity: Mary and Joseph’s Journey to Bethlehem and Jesus’ Birth There (Luke 2:1-7).

2.    The circumstances of this particular fulfillment of the Old Testament requirement of redeeming the first-born male truly fulfilled that requirement’s two purposes: to reinforce that every first-born male belongs to God and to commemorate the powerful action God took to redeem His people from bondage. See Exodus 13:11-16. No first born more truly belonged to God than Jesus; He is God’s own son. There has never been a more powerful action to save people from bondage than the sacrifice of that Son for our redemption.

3.    The combined takeaway from the events described here is that those greatly used by God are not in control of their own lives; they are submitted to and lead by God.