20180121
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD’S
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR US IN JESUS
21 JANUARY, 2018, Sunday, 3rd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Jonah 3:1-5,10 ©
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The word of the Lord was addressed to Jonah: ‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to
Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.’ Jonah set out
and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a
city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into
the city, making a day’s journey. He preached in these words, ‘Only forty days
more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed.’ And the people of Nineveh believed
in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the
least.
God saw
their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour. And God relented: he did not
inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 24(25):4-6,7b-9 ©
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Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my saviour.
Lord, make me know your ways.
Remember your mercy, Lord,
and the love you have shown from of old.
In your love remember me.
because of your goodness, O Lord.
Lord, make me know your ways.
The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray,
He guides the humble in the right path,
He teaches his way to the poor.
Lord, make me know your ways.
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Second reading
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1 Corinthians 7:29-31 ©
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Brothers: our time is growing short. Those who have wives should
live as though they had none, and those who mourn should live as though they
had nothing to mourn for; those who are enjoying life should live as though
there were nothing to laugh about; those whose life is buying things should
live as though they had nothing of their own; and those who have to deal with
the world should not become engrossed in it. I say this because the world as we
know it is passing away.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Mk1:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The kingdom of God is close at hand:
repent, and believe the Good News.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 1:14-20 ©
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I will make you into fishers of men
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After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he
proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom
of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’
As he was
walking along by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting
a net in the lake – for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them,
‘Follow me and I will make you into fishers of men.’ And at once they left
their nets and followed him.
Going on a
little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they too were
in their boat, mending their nets. He called them at once and, leaving their
father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him.
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD’S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
FOR US IN JESUS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ JONAH 3:1-5, 10; 1 COR 7:29-31; MK 1:14-20 ]
The heart
of Jesus’ proclamation in His ministry is the Good News from God. He
said, “The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and
believe the Good News.”
What is the
Good News that Jesus has come to preach that demands our repentance? The Good News clearly
does not consist of words but a person. Jesus has come to proclaim not
some doctrines or some timeless truths about God, life and the world. He
did not come to teach us theology, catechism or a philosophy of life.
Rather as the gospel says, Jesus began His ministry by proclaiming the Good
News of the kingdom of God.
What is this
kingdom of God that is close at hand? The kingdom is not a place
or a territory like the earthly kingdom. The kingdom is not a
noun but a verb. This kingdom is nothing else but the reign of God’s
love. So Jesus is saying that God’s love is now present and because His
love is here, we are saved. We are now called to believe in this
central message of Jesus that God loves us. Our salvation is so near the
moment, we say “yes” to this Good News. The reign of God’s love of course
is not an idea or simply a hope but concretely manifested in Jesus’
ministry. In His preaching and healings we see the power of God’s rule
over Satan and the Evil one. The exorcisms performed by Jesus affirm that
God’s love rules in our lives.
Most of all, in
the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, we see the reign of God’s
love over the sinfulness of man. Even when man rejected Jesus and
betrayed His love, Jesus, the unconditional love of God in person, continued to
suffer for us. In His suffering on the cross, there was no sign of
resentment against His Father or against His enemies and His friends who
betrayed Him. On the contrary, His love for His Father empowered Him to
surrender His life and His work into the hands of the Father; whereas His love
for us allowed Him to surrender His physical life to His enemies. At the
cross, rather than uttering words of hatred, He interceded on behalf of His
enemies and pleaded to the Father, asking for their forgiveness.
The full
content of the Good News of course is seen in the resurrection of Jesus from
the dead.
By raising Jesus from the dead, God showed His triumph over evil and over
sin. The last word is not sin, suffering and death but love and life.
By raising Jesus from the dead, God also vindicated and confirmed that Jesus is
truly the Son of God and therefore the embodiment of His love and forgiveness
for us. Finally, in the sending of the Holy Spirit, God’s love is now
poured into our hearts and His love now reigns in us. To anyone who
accepts Jesus, he or she too is made the son and daughter of God, sharing in
His dignity of sonship, His sufferings and also His glory.
This, in a
nutshell, is what the Good News is all about. Such is the Good News that Jesus has
proclaimed to us. In the face of the Good News, what should our
response be? We must repent. But the call to
repentance does not sound like good news. In fact, we fear
repentance. Many of us do not wish to repent. We prefer to continue
our old way of life. Repentance is a bad word because it means giving up
what we like to do. At most, like the Ninevites, we may repent out of
fear for the consequences of our sins, not because we truly wish to give up our
sins.
Even then, some
of us might feel that we do not have any sins. It means therefore
that they do not need the Good News. Hence, it is important to distinguish
the preaching of Jonah and that of Jesus. The preaching of Jonah was
a preaching of repentance from sins. The emphasis was a moral
repentance. In other words, for Jonah, and indeed the rest of the
prophets in the Old Testament until that of John the Baptist, repentance simply
meant to turn away from sin so that we will not face the consequences of our
sins. To repent was to turn back and reform one’s life. It meant to
observe the commandments that they had received.
However, for
Jesus, repentance is not so much turning away from sins. Rather, repentance
is turning to the Lord. By turning to the Lord, one indirectly turns
away from sin. The Greek word for repentance is “metanoia”, which means
not simply a change of mind but to put on the mind of Christ, or rather, to put
on Christ. It means to reorient one’s attitude to God in the face of His coming
kingdom. In other words, repentance is more than just giving up sins and
our old way of life.
Rather, it is
to actively take up the life of Jesus since Jesus is the kingdom of God in
person.
It is to believe that Jesus is the Good News in person and that He has come to show
us the way to receive God in our lives. That is why, for us Christians,
repentance is simply to believe that Jesus is the Good News of God’s
love. It is to cling to that love given to us gratuitously in Christ
Jesus by the free and sovereign initiative of God.
Once we
recognize Jesus as the love of God in person, then repentance
ultimately is to commit ourselves to the person of Jesus. It is a
personal relationship with Him whereby Jesus becomes our master, the one from
whom we take our direction in life. However, Jesus is more than a guru or
a wise teacher; He is also our Lord and God. Hence, commitment to Jesus
is a commitment to Him and His person and all that He stands for.
Repentance is to follow Jesus all the way to the cross and to the resurrection
because we believe that just as He conquered sin and death through the cross,
we too must follow the same path.
Of course, to
commit ourselves to Jesus is ultimately to live the life of the kingdom, here
and now, which is to live a life with God. In this sense, repentance
secondarily means conversion of life, for if we believe that Jesus is
the love of God, we would then be able to take Jesus at His Word and recognize
that He is the one who will free us from bondage of sin and has the key to the
fullness of life and love. When we come to know Jesus as a person,
then we want to come for mass daily, read the Word of God so that we can find
strength and encouragement. We would want to love and serve selflessly
and humbly like Jesus because we know through Jesus that this is the way to
life.
The Good News is
that when we commit ourselves to Jesus, then we no longer have to live
in fear. For with Jesus, we know that happiness is not dependent on
what we have but how we live our life. Indeed, like St Paul in the second
reading, we are exhorted to live in the spirit of detachment from the
world. This does not mean that we condemn the world. No, St Paul is
not condemning sex or marriage or the pleasures and joys of life.
Rather, it is
important that we see all these things in perspective. We
must not treat this world, its structures and relationships as ultimate.
We must realize that this life is short. Such thought should
not make us conclude that this being the case, we should just eat and drink and
be merry because we will then be no more. On the contrary, our lives
continue even after this world. Life is not destroyed but only
transformed. That is to say, we must not live as if we have only this
world to live. We are passing through. Hence, it is important that
we do all we can to share in the life of Jesus which is a life of service and
love in humility.
And because
life is short, we want to live the best kind of life that is possible,
which is the life of God. We want to make sure that we will complete this
life without regret by living a life of love and service. In the same
vein, because time is short, it also helps us to be aware that suffering
in this life is temporary. We should not be too preoccupied and
discouraged when we suffer in life, for all these things will pass. At
any rate, God will give us the strength and grace to overcome them if we turn
to Him. For God, nothing is impossible.
Hence, we
who are believers of the Good News should be the happiest people on earth.
We know our purpose in life and how we can arrive at the fullness of life
at the end of our history. Most of all, we also know how to get
there. God has shown us the way in Jesus and given us the Holy Spirit
present in the Church, in her teachers and in the sacraments to help us and
strengthen us in our journey to fullness of life.
Yes, repentance
brings freedom and joy to the Christian. It is not to be seen as
something against us where much effort is required. Repentance is to
accept the incredible offer of freedom and joy in believing in
Jesus. When we take hold of the Good News and respond to the love
of God in Jesus, we will be set free. Like the apostles, we must be
ready to surrender all our agenda and follow Him. The question is,
whether you will make yourself available to Jesus like the apostles who dropped
everything to follow Him. Until we respond like the apostles, the Good
News cannot happen in us.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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