Conversion of our Hearts: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sermon by Emmanuel Suntheni OSB – Third Sunday In Ordinary Time – Year B
Sermon And Christian Act In The Word
Theme: A call to repentance – a change of heart for the better? Conversion of Heart!
Point of Reflection: Am I ready to repent? Can I change my heart for the better? Today’s Scriptural readings issue a call to repent and undergo a change of heart. This change begins with attentive listening to the voice of God and responding to it through a change of life focus. Our holy father St Benedict in his prologue for the rule for monks and nuns has started by saying listen my son and daughter with the ear of your heart (RB-Prologue) “Listen carefully my son and daughter to the master’s instruction, and attend to them with the ear of your heart”. If we want to repent, then, we need to change our hearts for the better.
First Reading: Jonah 3:1–5, 10
Psalm: Psalm 25:4–9
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:29–31
Gospel: Mark 1:14–20
Sermon (Reflection): Today’s readings teach that openness to change the heart for better and the desire for God are the foundations of repentance.
The first reading of today comes from the story of the prophet Jonah whom God summoned to deliver a call to repentance to the inhabitants of Nineveh. This great ancient city was the capital of the empire of Assyria, a mortal enemy of Israel. But Jonah was a reluctant prophet. He initially refused to carry out his mission to the people he likely despised. His flight from God manifests his disobedience and resulted in the great drama of an encounter with the whale. Perhaps Jonah was afraid that if the people of Nineveh repented, God, in his mercy and compassion, would forgive the Assyrians’ evils and relent on his plan to destroy the city. Such deliverance was possibly the last thing this Israelite prophet wanted to have a hand in. In the end, Jonah was forced to accept that the Lord willed to grant the Ninevites a final opportunity to repent. Willingly or not, the Israelite prophet delivered a call for repentance, to his people’s traditional enemies just as he was commissioned to do.
Jonah’s message to the Ninevites contains merely five words in the original Hebrew: “forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” In the Bible, “forty days” is a symbolic number, which symbolises a time intended for transformation and a change of heart. Through the prophecy of Jonah, Nineveh receives a message of impending condemnation and doom, unless they change. To Jonah’s surprise, his message was understood and provoked a radical and decisive response as the people of the city “believed God; … proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth”. With the minimum of effort – one day preaching and just five words – Jonah enjoyed an unprecedented and overwhelming success, perhaps greater than that of any other prophet in Israel’s history.
However, it was not only the people of Nineveh who repented. Jonah was the first to undergo a change of heart in this story, as he had to stop running from God, to literally “turn around”, before he could invite and challenge the Ninevites to renounce their evils and turn to God. The story also shows that when the people repented from their evil, God too repented of the condemnation that he intended for them. The episode underlines the fact that no person, place or situation is beyond God’s mercy and compassion when they are ready to listen to God and have a change of heart and life.
The Gospel reading of today summarises the events that mark the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. He came “proclaiming the good news of God” which indicates that Jesus, unlike Jonah, has accepted his mission to the world from the onset. Thus, he summoned the people to conversion, “to repent and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). Faith and repentance imply a profound change of life’s orientation and constitute the only appropriate response to the coming of the kingdom in and through the person of Jesus.
The call of the first disciples on the shore of the Lake Galilee that immediately follows Jesus’ proclamation provides a perfect illustration of true repentance, that is a decisive and radical change of life. The story shows how ordinary people were transformed from fishermen to the disciples and apostles of Jesus. Jesus’ invitation to the two brothers, Simon and Andrew, was simple but challenging. First, he asked them to follow him and then to become fishers of people. Taking the initiative, Jesus met the brothers in the midst of their ordinary life and asked them to leave it, and thus to change their life orientation and goals. They responded to Jesus’ invitation by leaving their belongings and abandoning their profession, their lives would flow in a different direction from now on. Similarly, Jesus altered the lives of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Mark repeatedly uses the word “immediately”, to create a sense of the urgency of the call and determined decisiveness on the part of those called. Their response was prompt and total, a change of life without looking back, which is a perfect illustration of what repentance is about.
In the second reading of today, writing to the Corinthian Christians, Paul the apostle emphasized the urgency of repentance stating that “the appointed time has grown short” (Cf. 1 Corinthians 7:29). One of the many issues Paul dealt with in his letter was related to the question of marriage and celibacy. Keeping in mind the imminent coming of the Lord, Paul also urged Corinthians to adopt a new attitude towards God, others, and the world in general. Thus, believers should not be preoccupied with the concerns of the present and worldly life. Rather they should devote their gifts, time, and energy to serve the Lord and one another in the community. This required a change of heart in turning from selfish pursuits focused on this world because, according to Paul, this world and its glory passes away. Given the provisional and temporary shape of earthly life, Paul invites the Corinthians to apply their charism to the pursuit of that which serves God’s purposes, and, therefore, has a lasting value. Such a change of perspective on the current life requires a change of heart, and repentance from absorption by current, earthly affairs.
Christian Act in Word of God “A call to repentance – change of heart for the better?”
As followers of Christ, we can ask ourselves whether we live with change of heart for better or for worse. Looking at the world today, we are often overwhelmed by the sense of gloom caused by the clear evidence of falsehood, corruption, and evil that surrounds and threatens us. Such perception discourages and detaches our hearts from our creator. Yet, we can turn this gloom to our advantage. Jonah’s message to the Ninevites was one of a threatening doom. However, his dark message did not lead them to despair but rather to a life-changing repentance. In our time, when we see the wrongs of our world, we can treat these as a call to repent from all that separates us from God. We might treat these negative and threatening aspects of life as a call to turn away from wickedness. As Christians, let us change our heart for better then we can change the world for better, we need to end falsehood, cheating, killing and corruption in our societies.
As Christians, we are often ourselves tainted by sin which brings darkness to the world. Today’s call to repentance and change of heart contains a challenge to openness that allows us to admit our own faults. Starting with such admission, we can respond to God by altering whatever makes our life unchristian and inhuman. Openness to change relies on honesty about who and where we are in life.
Today’s call to a change of heart also means detachment from what imprisons or possesses us, making a change of life impossible. We live in the world where many people are concerned with the securities of the past and are not ready to let go of these securities in order to let Christ in. These securities include traditions and worldviews which we inherited from our predecessors. These are often rooted in our cultures, customs, political and religious systems. Some of them are very good, some are not. We need to judge carefully which of these are in line with our Christian faith and help us to live better lives, and which hold us and our society back.
When Jesus called his disciple to follow him and promised to make them fishers of people, he made a very direct and life-changing offer. To accept his invitation, they first had to leave their securities behind; they had to detach themselves from all they had and knew, including the way of life they had learned. The decision was theirs, and it was wholehearted. They could have said “No!”. But, by their ability to move on in life, they became world-changers by bringing the good news about Jesus to others and doing the same things as Jesus did. Their willingness to accept change by leaving things behind made this possible. As Christians ourselves, we are the modern disciples, we must also be willing to open our lives to Jesus’ invitation and be willing to leave certain things behind for the sake of Christ.
Such a process may be painful at times. Let us, therefore, be open to change, sometimes by admitting our wrongs. Let us also be willing to leave some good things behind, even if they are good and important for us, and more importantly, when they prevent us from bettering ourselves and our communities. These are the conditions of true discipleship. These are also the demands that need to be met, in order to make progress in life drawing ever closer to God’s salvation.
Action:I will change my heart for better and be a better Christian.
Prayer:Almighty God, we are all sinners in one way or another, we have destroyed your creation with our falsehood, our cheating, and our corruption, we come to you today to ask for forgiveness and repentance, as your son Jesus Christ begun his public mystery, he called for repentance and to believe in the Lord for the Kingdom of God is near, today, let us open our hearts to change for better and to be better Christians, we ask this through your son Jesus Christ, and may the Holy Spirit empower us, Amen.
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