WHAT’S THE BIG HURRY?

Reflections for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Jonah 3:1-5, 10, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, & Mark 1:14-20)

Everyone seems to be in a hurry in today’s readings. Jonah breaks a record of sorts when he rushes through the “enormously large” city of Nineveh in a single day, while it normally takes “three days to go through it”. His message is evidently urgent too, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed”. Paul, in the second reading, reminds the Corinthians, “I tell you, the time is running out”. Mark, in the Gospel, uses the adverb “immediately” (Greek word εὐθὺς) twice: immediately he called them (v.20) and immediately (v.18) they left their nets. In fact, the word ‘immediately’ occurs 41 times in Mark’s Gospel and only 10 times in the rest of the New Testament (Matthew (5), Luke (1), John (3), & Acts (1)). Mark does not care much about a poetic prologue like John, a “detailed” account like Luke, or a structured narrative like Matthew. He aims to present Jesus on the move. But, why the hurry? 

It’s time to repent:

“This is the time of fulfilment”, proclaims Jesus. The time that is announced here is not the linear passage of the mundane chronos, nor the endless repetition of the cyclical Kalachakra, but kairos, which the bible defines as a special time of God's favour and action in our history. The public ministry of Jesus marks a new and decisive chapter in the “fulfilment” period of a strategic moment in salvation history. This chapter intervenes in our history at a difficult moment: “After John had been arrested” by Herod Antipas I. No dictator or tyranny can hinder the ‘new’ time of fulfilment, which is set in motion by the carpenter from Galilee. The extraordinariness of the present moment mandates a decisive response that is best characterised by the Gospel’s call to “repent”. The breaking of Kairos into our history requires us to urgently change our way of living and worshipping, our perceptions, priorities, and attitudes and to accept the radical transformation that God’s breaking into our lives brings with it.

God is here, Believe:

The reality that bursts into our history is named “the Kingdom of God” which is at hand. This Kingdom is not a geographical entity that was formerly equated to the militant Christian empires of Constantine or the medieval West. Nor is it an ideology that can serve to justify or reconcile our political, moralistic or economic agendas. The Kingdom of God is a person, the Good News (Greek word euangelion) of the Son of God who takes the first step towards us. Jesus is not merely a ‘key’ to the understanding of the Kingdom. He is the Kingdom of God, and in him, the reign of God becomes a tangible reality. Believing in the gospel is not about accepting a theory but entering into a relationship. God is at hand and he invites us to meet with him, just like he invited Simon, Andrew, James, and John. The monumental implications of this invitation mandate us to respond with the sense of urgency that animated the first disciples.

Follow me, Leave:

Jesus’ urgent call is clear: “Follow me”. The response that is demanded is neither a verbal answer nor a declaration of intent. God expects us to answer his call not in words but in action. Answering this call ‘in action’ is risky for it involves a choice to give up what one holds dear, to follow a path to a destination that is not yet clear, and to walk a path that involves persecutions, and oppositions. However, trusting in the one who calls, we follow to become not just better, but new. The people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. The disciples left their boats, nets, and fathers to follow. Renouncing everything for God is misinterpreted in a negative sense when it is explained as giving ‘up’ things, people and comforts or giving ‘in’ to the rules and morals. The leaving behind that characterises discipleship, however, is not just ‘giving up’ or ‘giving in’ but a generous and timely ‘giving of’ oneself to the mission of Christ and His Church. The Kairos moments of God’s intervention are permanently at hand and they mandate us to break the comfort of our routine, to repent, to believe, and to give ourselves to follow Jesus with freedom. That’s the big hurry.