Readings (Year B):
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20
Reflection: God has a place for each of us
On Sundays the first reading and the gospel are usually chosen as a pair. Together they’re meant to touch on a similar spiritual theme or experience of God. So, in the scriptures for January 21st, the gospel and first reading each offer a call story. God calls Jonah to deliver his message to the people of Nineveh, just as Jesus calls Peter and Andrew, James and John to be his disciples.
But the deeper core that these readings share emerges from whom God calls. Of all the kinds of people God could call to be his friends and disciples, he chooses not the rich, the powerful, or influential, but earthy, complicated people. While the story of Jonah preaching God’s word today seems very straightforward, it’s preceded by two chapters in which Jonah flees from God’s invitation. And after the people of Nineveh repent, Jonah, rather than rejoicing, is furious with God for showing mercy to such terrible people.
The limitations of Peter and his fellow disciples will only be revealed later, after they’ve been following Jesus for a while. But they will prove to be every bit as stubborn and resistant to Jesus’ mission of mercy and self-sacrificing love as Jonah was.
None of this seems terribly practical on God’s part. But then again love rarely is practical, is it? And that’s the real point of both readings: that God sees and loves these people for who they are. Being his disciple isn’t about being perfect or even all that useful. It’s about allowing God to love us as we are, imperfect though we may be. And as we accept this love, the rest will come.
It can be easy to believe that some aspect of our lives or our history makes us unworthy in the eyes of God. None of us of perfect. Sometimes things we’ve said or done haunt us for a long time. There’s a great temptation, too, to shun others whom we judge to be not living in the way we think they should.
But today God reminds us once again that his ways are radically different than ours. We do not have to earn our place in the kingdom of God. God has a place for each and every of us at his table as we are. And at his feast all our fears and resistances can be faced and fall away.
Add comment