Homily for the Week of January 22, 2012

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time B 2012
First Reading: Jonah 3:1–5, 10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25:4–5, 6–7, 8–9
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:29–31
Gospel: Mark 1:14–20


On Friday a team of doctors and nurses at the University of Southern California Medical Center sent Melinda home with her mother and father. Melinda, born at 24 weeks, and weighing only 9 1/2 ounces, was born in August. At birth, Melinda was so tiny she could fit into the palm of her doctor’s hand. She weighed less than a can of soda. While doctors warn that babies born this premature often experience developmental delays, many thrive and today are doing fine. One is a 7 year old healthy first-grader, the other is an honors college student studying psychology, As we pray today on this 39th year since the legalization of abortion in our country, Melinda’s mother and father point out the obvious: that even the tiniest of preemies must be considered persons.


On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision on Roe v. Wade regarding abortion, which, by severely limiting states’ rights to regulate abortion, had the effect of making abortion legal. The decision sparked a national debate that is no less contentious now than it was 39 years ago. Of the many issues the decision raised, one is the question of what role religious and moral views should play in the political sphere. Answering this question has become almost as divisive as the question of abortion.


Our Bible readings for today center on our need to pray that God will teach us his way of life. The first is from the book of Jonah. The story of Jonah is not really history. It is an elaborate narrative about the power of God’s word to transform people. Assyria was a powerful and ruthless country that had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and seriously threatened the southern kingdom of Judah. Nineveh had been the capital of Assyria. Assyria was considered the most brutal of all the Mediterranean Middle Eastern countries that had ever existed. The city of Nineveh became a example for the scariest place on earth. Parents would threaten to send their children to Nineveh if they did not behave.


Written long after Nineveh had fallen, the Book of Jonah attacks a consequence of Judah’s experience of brutal war with Assyria and its later conquest and exile at the hands of Babylon. For various reasons the Jewish people isolated themselves from others. They had become “outsiders,” and many laws and religious rules were put in place to insure this.


But God had something else in mind for the people of Nineveh. It is to this place that God sent Jonah to tell them that they had to ask for forgiveness. God had mercy on them. Amazingly the people of Nineveh changed their ways when they heard Jonah. This story teaches us that God is radically different from us. His ability to forgive is beyond our imagining.


God was interested in seeing His people change their hearts and convert others, not condemn them. Jonah tells a story of God’s desire to reach outsiders. In using Nineveh we see God reaching out to the worst of the worst, and with just a word from God speaking through Jonah the Ninevites repented. Not only did they repent, even God repented, that is, He changed His threat of destruction into an act of forgiveness.


In our Gospel we hear Jesus tells us, Repent and believe, and act like you believe it! The command is to change our attitude based on trusting God. To repent is to always make a choice to put God first in our lives. As an example: we might have to adjust the hour we attend Mass because of conflicts in scheduling, but to put God first is to make joining others in Church once a week as our first priority. When we do this we give clear witness of the absolute importance of God in their lives.


How do we bring people to respect human life? How do we get people to change their attitude toward abortion? We cannot force change because force does not change attitudes any more than a law can make us moral. Such changes take place in our heart and our conscience. We bring people to repentance by passing on the invitation of Christ: “Follow me.” If people see that God’s word has changed us, made us joyful and holy, it makes repentance an attractive choice. We are really saying by our actions: Do not do what I say but do what I do. This way we are like a compass showing others the right direction.


In a similar way Jesus comes to each of us here on this Saturday, January 21, 2012 (Sunday, January 22, 2012) and invites us to reform our lives and to believe in the good news. Reform means to turn our lives around if that is necessary. If we have been going away from God, it is now time to turn to him. If we have been following God, then we pray that we will continue.
Without our knowing it we often meet up with persons who want to set themselves up as our Savior and invite us to join them. Some are well intentioned; others want numbers. We are given the opportunity today to again listen to God’s call to reform our lives. God is in our midst, but we can never respond to Him, if we are looking somewhere else. Very often we are tempted to walk in the path of evil. If and when we do, God does not seek to punish us, but he offers us his mercy and his love for forgiveness. Jesus invites us to daily follow him. From the very moment of our conception God has placed in our person the desire to be good. But because he has also given us the freedom to do good or to do bad, we can make the choice of evil. Like Jonah or baby Melinda’s parents, let us never regret or feel ashamed that we have not followed the right direction.