Today is the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, and our Gospel moves us chronologically from Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan, which we celebrated a few weeks ago, to the beginning of His public ministry, His first publicly spoken words, and the calling of the first Apostles.
Today, January 25th, is also the day on which the Church typically celebrates the Conversion of St. Paul. This feast would usually be skipped when it falls on a Sunday, because Sunday celebrations take precedence.
But since this is a special jubilee year celebrating the two-thousandth anniversary of St. Paul’s birth, our Holy Father gave special permission for this celebration of St. Paul to be observed on a Sunday.
And so we heard from St. Paul twice today: in our first reading, we heard St. Paul describing the circumstance of his conversion and his own call as an Apostle, and we also heard, in our second reading, part of St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians
These two sets of readings fit together almost seamlessly and with one voice they speak to us about the nature of our own call as followers of Christ. Together, these readings speak to us about ‘when’ we are called and ‘what’ we are called to do.
First, the ‘when.’ In today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, we hear Jesus’ first publicly spoken words: “This is the time of fulfillment, the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
His message is unmistakably immediate and present. THIS is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God IS AT HAND. NOW is the acceptable time.
St. Mark’s succinct and direct style of writing heightens this sense of immediacy. He recounts that Jesus sees Simon and Andrew, and James and John, fishing on the Sea of Galilee. Mark says, “He called them . . . then they abandoned their nets and followed Him.”
No questions are asked. No conversation ensues. Mark does not give us any indication of deliberations or preparations the fishermen might have made. He states that they are called, and that they immediately stopped what they were doing and followed.
As you know well, for us believers, these Scriptures are not dead letters. These words are addressed as much to us as they were to the men of Galilee who first heard them – and the present moment that these words speak of is ‘now’ for us as it was ‘now’ for them.
Friends, THIS is the time of fulfillment. NOW is the acceptable time. And our response must be as immediate as that of the first Apostles.
We should ask ourselves, if our responses to Jesus’ invitation were recorded, would they be as immediate as that of the Apostles in today’s Gospel? Or do we not, more often, have any number of reasons and excuses for delaying our response.
We are too busy to make time for prayer or to make time for works of charity. We are too comfortable in our own patterns of sinfulness to reform. There is always some other time, in the imagined future, that will be better for us to respond to Jesus’ invitation.
But no – the time is NOW. As St. Paul warns the Corinthians in today’s second reading, “time is running out . . . the world in its present form is passing away.” We cannot delay or make excuses, we must drop what we are doing and follow Him NOW.
St. Mark takes note, at the beginning of today’s Gospel, that Jesus begins His public ministry “after John had been arrested.” Not a particularly auspicious sign. In fact it was an obviously ominous sign of the fate that would await Jesus as well. And yet it was precisely the right time for Jesus to begin His Father’s work.
The same is true for us as well. Whatever our sins or struggles – whatever our misfortunes or fears, the time to heed Jesus’ call and do the Father’s will is always ‘now.’
Having made sufficiently clear that the ‘when’ is now, we can address the ‘what’ that we are called to do in the present moment. And in fact, this is the very question on the lips of Saul as he is knocked to the ground and blinded while on his way to Damascus:
“Who are you, sir?” Paul asks, and when the voice from Heaven answers “I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting,” Paul’s immediate response is “what shall I do, sir?”
The answer lies in Jesus’ “inaugural address” from today’s Gospel: “the Kingdom of God is at hand. REPENT and believe in the Gospel.” That is always the very first thing we are called to do.
Like the Apostles called in today’s Gospel, we must stop what we are doing, drop everything and leave behind our former selves, our previous way of living. We must abandon the nets that entangle us in all sorts of sinful, destructive thoughts and behaviors. We must repent and truly believe the Good News that Jesus ushers into our lives.
In turn, Jesus says to us as surely as he said to Peter, Andrew, James and John, “come after me and I will make you fishers of men.” Our conversion, our turning away from whatever held us bound, toward Jesus who sets us free is not merely a movement for our own sakes. It is always a movement that is meant to take others up into the life of the Gospel. Like St. Paul, we are to be “witnesses before all to the things [we] have seen and heard.”
Friends, in these early weeks of Ordinary Time and early weeks of a new year, we are given the opportunity to go back to basics, to reflect on some of the fundamental elements of Christian discipleship.
All our readings today remind us that it is always the right time to answer the Lord’s call, to repent of our sins, follow after Him and join His evangelizing mission. Through the intercession of St. Paul and all the Apostles, may the Eucharist we are about to receive strengthen us to accept this invitation and this commission.
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