This weekend’s three readings underline the absolute necessity for us of repentance and a prompt response to God’s call. Our First Reading…tells us how God had to punish the disobedient prophet, Jonah, to get him to preach repentance in Nineveh. The wicked people of Nineveh, however, could accept Jonah as God’s prophet, and, hence, they promptly responded to God’s call for repentance as Jonah preached it. In the Second reading…Paul urges the Christian community in Corinth to lose no time in accepting the message of the gospel and renewing their lives with repentance because Jesus’ second coming might occur at any moment. Today’s gospel…describes how Jesus came to Galilee and began preaching, challenging people to “repent and believe in the gospel”.
Just as John the Baptist did, Jesus also called for repentance, meaning a change in one’s mind or in the direction of one’s life, setting new priorities. It also meant hating sin and feeling sorry for the consequences of one’s sins. Believing in the gospel demanded, from the hearers, a resolution to take Jesus’ words seriously…to translate them into action…and, to put trust in Jesus’ authority. Jesus preached the good news, that God is a loving, forgiving, caring and merciful Father who wants to liberate us and save us from our sins through His Son Jesus. By describing the call of Jesus’ first disciples (Andrew, Peter, James & John), today’s gospel also emphasizes how we, sinners, are to respond to God’s call with total commitment by abandoning our accustomed style of sinful life.
An epitaph to God’s grace: In a small cemetery of a parish churchyard in Olney, England stands a granite tombstone with this inscription: “John Newton, pastor, once an infidel…a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ…preserved…restored…pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.” You may not remember his name…but all of us know the song that he wrote as a testimony of his life (after he repented)…..he was the author of——Amazing Grace!
Attend church…read your Bible…be nice to one another,
