Homily
for the
3d Sunday
of Ordinary Time
Jan. 24,
2021
Mark 1:
14-20
Christian
Brothers, Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Wouldn’t you like to say,
“Zebedee, a penny for your thoughts”?
“Jesus came to Galilee
proclaiming the gospel of God” (Mark 1: 14).
In the 1st verse of his Gospel,
Mark proclaimed that Jesus is personally the good news from God. He gave us a brief account of John the
Baptist’s ministry, which laid the groundwork for Jesus, and then the briefest
report of Jesus’ baptism, retreat into the desert, and temptations—all that in
12 verses.
Now Jesus bursts upon the
scene. Immediately there’s an ominous
note. The forerunner’s been
arrested. Mark’s Greek word, paradothenai
(1:14), means “handed over.” It’s the
same word that will be used to report Jesus’ fate: he’ll be handed over to his enemies and put
to death. What John has begun, Jesus
will continue, and he’ll meet the same fate.
His message is the same as John’s: Repent! It’s also different: John announced that someone more powerful was coming. Jesus announces that the kingdom, the rule of God, is at hand. “The time is fulfilled” (1:15)—all that the prophets foretold, all that John preached, has come. It comes in the person of Jesus. “Believe in the gospel” (1:15); believe that God rules in Jesus Christ, that Jesus teaches God’s ways, that Jesus opens up God’s kingdom to all who desire entry.
Mark tells us, “Jesus came to
Galilee” (1:14). He’s been away from his
home territory. Mark’s already told us
of his baptism at the Jordan and his 40 days in the Judean wilderness. John’s Gospel tells us more: that Jesus and his disciples spent some time
in “the region of Judea” baptizing like John the Baptist, and perhaps not far
from where John was, because people take note of them both (John 3:22,26). This follows Jesus’ 1st encounter with his
future apostles, part of which we heard in last Sunday’s gospel (John 1:35-42).
John’s report of what happened
around the Jordan indicates that Jesus had already begun to assemble a group of
followers. Perhaps this wasn’t yet in a
decisive form. Perhaps Jesus himself was
testing out his message of repentance and of God’s kingdom.
John moves Jesus and his
disciples from the Jordan by way of the wedding at Cana, where, after the
miracle, “his disciples began to believe in him” (2:11). It’s only a start.
Mark then presents 2
determinative scenes: 1st, Jesus’
decisive preaching, and 2d, a decisive call addressed to 4 disciples. At least 2 of the 4 had been with Jesus at
the Jordan and then at Cana, namely, Simon and Andrew. We may reasonably speculate that John, son of
Zebedee, was the unnamed disciple who with Andrew had followed Jesus to that
1st afternoon encounter prompted by John the Baptist (John 1:35-39).
It would indeed be remarkable if a complete stranger showed up at the lakeside and, out of the blue, invited 4 fishermen who didn’t know him, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men,” and they did just that (Mark 1:16-20). That would strain belief. We may believe there was already some acquaintance between them; some preparation for the call had been made, just as our vocation directors do today before issuing an invitation to apply for a candidacy program.
Simon and Andrew, James and
John make a commitment on the spot.
Jesus’ clear invitation, his unambiguous proposal, draws a
response. They leave their livelihoods
behind—their boats and their nets. They
leave their status behind—their positions as proprietors of a small business
partnership (cf. Luke 5:7-11) doing well enuf to hire people. James and John leave their father behind, at
least symbolically breaking a family tie and foreshadowing what Jesus will
teach later about not loving mother and father more than him (Matt 10:37).
We have to note, however, that
in spite of that abandonment of livelihood, status, and family, of their
readiness to go where Jesus will lead, their conversion is only beginning. They have far to go on their path of
repenting and believing the gospel. At
Cana they’d only “begun to believe in him.”
They have far to go in putting away their ambitions, competitiveness,
and desire for power and possessions, as we see repeatedly in the gospels.
That long conversion process
isn’t unlike our own, is it? We commit
ourselves to follow the poor, chaste, and obedient Christ and to be fishers of
human beings for the kingdom, and then spend years and years trying to purify
our motives, to improve our practice of the counsels and of fraternal charity,
and to be more generous and enthusiastic apostles. The conversion of Simon and Andrew, James and
John wasn’t instant and total. They
persisted, and the grace of God did the rest—as it will for us.
A final thought on what it
means for Jesus to make them “fishers of men” (1:17), which I take from a
commentary[1]:
In the Bible, the sea evokes a fearful
place that strikes the imagination and on which it is dangerous to venture—a
lair of monsters, a destructive force.
To pull people out of the sea is not to drag them in a net out of their
natural element, but to snatch them from a bad world, to free them from the
powers of evil, for the kingdom of heaven when, on Judgment Day, the sorting
out will take place (Matt 13:47-50).
As Mark will specify in ch. 3,
the reading we heard on Friday, Jesus calls the disciples to be with him, to
join him in driving out demons, and to open up the kingdom to humanity (vv.
13-19).
Amid a dangerous, hostile
world, a culture in so many ways inimical to Jesus’ good news, that’s just what
he’s summoned us to as apostolic religious.
By the grace of God, may we be faithful disciples and zealous
apostles. Thru us may Jesus catch a lot
of fish.
[1] Days of the Lord: The
Liturgical Year. Vol. 5. Ordinary Time, Year B (Collegeville: Liturgical
Press, 1993), p. 31.
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