Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

As we came to hear last Sunday, we find in the first few weeks of Ordinary Time, stories of the beginnings of Our Lord’s public life and ministry. We heard in the call of His first disciples, that, from the beginning. the Lord never meant to “go it alone,” but to draw others into the heart of His mission on earth. He did this by:
+ calling disciples into a personal, even intimate relationship
+ forming them in the faith through this friendship
+ permitting them to:
   - hear His Teaching
   - witness His miraculous, healing ministry
+ eventually, sending them forth to become His living Presence in the world, upon His Ascension to the Father in heaven.

We hear today in our Scriptural Passages, three essential elements of discipleship for us to consider:
+ the Lord’s Call…in the Gospel
+ our response…in the words of Saint Paul
+ the sending forth…through the missionary ministry of Jonah


The Lord’s Call
Are you not at least somewhat amazed that, in one sentence: “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men,” the Lord’s words can bring utter and profound change in the lives of Simon and Andrew, James and John… and that they would respond with such dramatic immediacy as to:
+ drop their nets
+ leave their poor, unsuspecting father in the boat?

Or was Saint Mark using some poetic license hereto abbreviate these men’s response time, in order to make a point for us to consider? We can look to the opening words of today’s Gospel for a clue: The Lord had already been proclaiming:
+ “This is the time of fulfillment.
+  The Kingdom of God is at hand.
+  Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

It seems likely that, having already heard these words which spoke to their hearts and touched them that when the invitation became personal, they were drawn beyond the Lord’s words, to the very person of Jesus. It is therefore further likely that there will be something similar in the Lord’s call to discipleship for each of us.

Formed in the Faith as we have been, throughout our lives, having heard the Lord’s words in the Gospel so many times through the years, we have been given a basis for an eventual, personal invitation to relationship with Christ as His disciples had, here in our own time and place.

Th Lord’s Call is not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing, but is tailored to each individual, according to:
+ our age
+ our life situation
+ our personality
+ our operative spirituality…

… so that the Lord’s Call is constantly being renewed as we grow and change.

This being said, let’s look at the Lord’s words to the people in general, and then to Simon and Andrew, to see how they apply to us. He said, “This is the time of fulfillment… The Kingdom of God is at hand… Repent and believe in the Gospel.” 

To say, “This is the time of fulfillment,” connotes some immediacy and even some urgency. The Lord is saying, in essence, “All that the Prophets foretold, all that the people have longed for through the ages… is available to you, here and now; don’t let it pass you by.”

When He says further: “The Kingdom of God is at hand,” He’s speaking of more than a new outlook on life, He’s speaking of a God-centered life for which I no longer have to set the course, but for which Christ, the very Son of God, will lead me: a life in which:
+ earth is touched by heaven
+ the temporal is turned toward the eternal
+ humanity is graced by divinity.

How, then, can we better hear and assimilate this calling? He tells us in the next statement: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” We tend to think of repentance as a Lenten motif: doing penance for our sins, or effecting a restoration of self-discipline in the spiritual life. This is all well and good, but the Lord is extending us a charge that is life-long and counter-cultural, wherein, when the culture says, “Indulge,” the Lord says, “Repent.” To repent in this context means to re-think: to re-think our lives and set a new direction for our future, a life that is now Gospel-driven. 

Our Response
This leads us now to our response: If the Lord’s call is counter-cultural, then our response could very well be counter-intuitive. It can all seem so esoteric, all this talk of repentance and gospel-as-life-direction, but what the Lord has in store for us is always better than what we can imagine for ourselves.

It is centered in our relationship with Him as a response to His invitation. Here we come to know the difference between a disciple and a follower:
+ a follower is attracted to the Leader’s words
+ a disciple is attracted to the Leader himself

This is what happened for Simon and Andrew… James and John. Having heard something of the Lord’s words, when they now meet Him, the words themselves find their fulfillment in the person of Jesus that enacts a life-changing response for these fishermen with a phrase that speaks directly to them and transforms the purpose of their lives, making them “fishers of men.”

But that purpose for their lives will come in good time, through the development of their personal relationship with Christ. The same will be true for us: We will not be able to affect that third element of discipleship — evangelizing, bringing the world to Christ — unless we know Christ personally, and are familiar with His Teaching.

Like all friendships, our friendship with Christ needs to be cultivated; it cannot be taken for granted. This is lived primarily through prayer: the “perfect prayer” which is the Mass, and that struggling dialogue which is our personal prayer. In our prayer, we can gather up the incidents of each day and bring them to Christ, to share our joys and sorrows with Him, asking him to filter out the dross of self-interest and pride which seem to cling to so much of what we do.

In this kind of prayer the Lord will draw us out of ourselves. He will question our excessive interest in:
+ technology
+ news
+ sport
+ entertainment
+ politics
+ local gossip

…and remind us of the greater importance of the things of God and our duty to become saintly.

The Sending Forth
This will eventually lead us outward to others, not to proselytize, meaning to make them more like ourselves, but to evangelize, to help them become more like Christ… which leads us now to that third element of Discipleship: taking Christ and His word to the world. 

Unless we have heard the Lord’s personal invitation and have responded to Him in a personal relationship of faith and love, going forth into the world can seem daunting, or even hopeless. Disciples evangelizing are not merely imposing their opinions or agendas on others, they’re looking to share the peace and joy of knowing Christ… His saving love… and how He alone can lead people to the Father in heaven. As the late Pope Benedict XVI once said, “The Church does not impose, what the Church does is propose.”

Disciples not only make Christ visible, we’re meant to make Him attractive. Saint Teresa of Calcutta spoke frequently of our relationship with Christ first transforming us — and then — through us, transforming the world.  Some of her most famous words were spoken to Malcolm Muggeridge in 1971, which he quotes in his book “Something Beautiful for God.”

“Being happy with Christ means:
+ loving as He loves
+ helping as He helps
+ giving as He gives
+ serving as He serves
+ receiving as He receives…
… being with Him twenty-four hours a day, touching Him in His distressing disguise.”

Pope Saint Paul VI wrote: “Evangelization is not only a question of preaching the Gospel to ever greater numbers of people, but also of speaking to, and even upsetting society’s
+ criteria for judgment
+ determining  of values
+ points of interest
+ lines of thought
+ sources of inspiration
+ models of life…
… which are in contrast with the Word of God and His plan of salvation.”

Pope Saint John Paul II informs us that in our move outward to evangelize, we will meet up with a cultural environment entrapped in three readily-apparent negative influences:
+ the lure of a consumerist society which traps people into a materialistic interpretation of life
+ a utilitarian and hedonistic approach to sexuality which stunts the growth of human personhood
+ and distorted and misunderstood sense of freedom disconnected from objective truth.

Fair warning for us would-be evangelists.

So, how are we to begin that part of discipleship that moves outward to that great world out there? While missionaries are sent to the far corners of the globe, for the rest of us, evangelism will take place much closer to home. It seems that most every family has members who have fallen away from the practice of the Faith, or know people who have left the Church deliberately.

Coming to know the reasons for departure can prepare us to engage them in conversation. Recent surveys of former Catholics have shown reasons for departure, which we will look at briefly, in descending order, beginning with the most frequent responses.

+ Divorce and re-marriage outside the Church
+ Disagreement with and dissension from Church disciplines:
   - the ordination of women
   - contraception
   - abortion and sanctity of life issues
   -  same-sex “marriage”
+ A feeling of exclusion, because the Church will not affirm their illicit lifestyle
+ Disillusionment with priests and bishops in wake of the pedophilia scandal

For the most part, then, it’s not Church doctrine at the core of this, but human weakness which causes people to turn away, worsened by 
+ a loss of the sense of the Sacred in worship
+ a lessened belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
+ the dumbing-down of Catechesis through many years
+ the powerful, dis-integrative influence of an ever-increasingly secular culture 
+ the confusion wrought by the questionable theology brought forth from the present Pope

This is the great challenge we face in what John Paul and Benedict described as “The New Evangelization.” Our participation in The New Evangelization can take part in a number of ways:
+ modeling fidelity to the Faith as we remain faithful to the Gospel, the Church and the Parish
+  giving good example through our involvement in Christian ministries, and striving to live virtuous lives
+ speaking with, and listening to people with charity, who may not respond with the same charity
+ inviting friends and family members to return to the Fatih, to the Church and to the Sacraments by coming to Mass with us

If our discipleship and our love for Christ are genuine, we will attract others to Christ, slowly, perhaps, in the beginning. So, we have to come to see that discipleship involves
+ openness to the Lord’s invitation
+ a response with generosity of spirit
+ witnessing to others with knowledge, courage, and charity.

Two closing thoughts now about our discipleship: First, from Saint Paul in his Letter to the Philippians (4:8)
+ “Whatever is true
+ whatever is honorable
+ whatever is just
+ whatever is pure
+ whatever is lovely
+ whatever is gracious
+ if there is any excellence…
+ if there is anything worthy of praise…
think about these things.

And from the 19th-century French essayist, Leon Bloy: “The only sadness in the world is the sadness of not becoming a saint.”