By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their
evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did
not carry it out. Jonah 3:10
I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out…For
the world in its present form is passing away. 1 Corinthians
7:29A, 31B
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his
brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I
will make you fishers of men.” Mark 1:16-17
Piety
The big picture of piety
shows our response to the purpose of life. It is not simply that we are created to the
image and likeness of Christ. The
Sacramental life of the Church makes us children of God. Christ in his
humanness is in heaven. The Sacramental
life of the Church makes us the humanness of Christ here on earth. The world in its present form is passing away.
The Sacramental life of the Church makes
us intimately related to Christ and each other as children of his Father. The Sacraments make us into the reality of
Christ on earth. Our piety is how we
respond to the call of Christ. He shows
us his life as the perfect response to the Father’s love for us. Our piety makes us over into the mind and
heart of Christ. We bring a shared
redemption to our world when we offer our sufferings in the name of Christ to
fill up what is wanting to the sufferings of Christ.
Study
The arresting of John,
brought a change in the style of the ministry of Jesus. The Good News is that God loved the world. Jesus is the good news of salvation. God loved the world so much that he was
willing to be one of us so that we would know how much and how great is the
love of God for us. The arresting of
John brought Jesus to the need of a replacement for John. He called the fisherman and their very call is
the beginning of our call. If he would
call fishermen, we have lost any possible excuse for not hearing our own call. Who could not be called by the Lord?
Action
Jonah goes through the big
city of Nineveh telling the people that God will destroy them if they do not
change. He actually thought they would
not listen to him. He is even mad at God
that they did listen. Do we actually
believe we can make a difference in this world of ours that has gone so crazy
that innocent people are being blown up for the sake of keeping our easy lives
safe? We cannot use the excuse that we
cannot do any good because God is the one that changes lives if we do our job. Is anyone too low down in the scale of
worthwhile that God would not be willing to use us to call one back to the
purpose of their life?
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