January
23, 2000 -- 3rd Sunday "B"
H O M I L Y
When the
disciples left everything and followed Jesus they took quite a risk. Other prophets in their time had come who
claimed to be the Messiah and many followed them, only to realize later on that
they had made a mistake. The disciples were lucky; the one they followed was
the real Messiah. And therefore, later
on, they often recalled that first moment when they heard the call, and they
somewhat embellish it. Each one of the
Evangelists recounts it in a different manner and describes a different
context. They tend to give the
impression that their response was an immediate and definitive one. In fact they hesitated considerably and did
not definitely abandon their occupations until after the resurrection. But in telescoping the events into a single
episode the evangelists stress the essential point. This is the capacity of God's call, once it is recognized, to
mobilize all human energies, and the
authority with which Jesus actually chose his followers.
Jesus' procedure
of calling his disciples to follow him is characteristic of the new style the
young rabbi proposes to adopt. He does
not gather them around him after the manner of contemporary rabbis and leaders
of schools. He is not going to be a
professor of thought seated on his chair with fervent listeners at his
feet. He will be an itinerant rabbi
constantly journeying toward the poor and errant. He will demand from his disciples not so much willing ears or
enthusiastic gaze, but the willingness to travel, the courage to encounter the
other at the furthest limit. Evangelization will not be a matter of closed circles, gathered in a
common framework of thought around a common master. It will be going out of oneself to encounter the other.
That is well
illustrated by the reading from the book of Jonah. There is a tremendous difference between the attitude of Jonah
and the attitude that Jesus expects from his disciples when he sends them to a
place. Jonah did not go to Nineveh as a
missionary, but rather to execute God's inexorable judgment on the
nations. The Jewish view was that this
judgment would bring justice to Israel while punishing and destroying the
Gentiles.
Jonah, the
countryman, goes off, very sure of himself, to encounter the city folk. He is convinced that he will control the
relationship between Yahweh and Nineveh. He possesses the truth about God and can explain everything as a result,
as if God could be limited to the ideas that are formed about him. So sure is he of his theology that he thinks
he knows in advance what the reaction of his audience will be. He will be able to control this and direct
it in the required direction. Hence his
chagrin at the unexpected attitude of the Ninevites. Deep down Jonah does not want either a free God or an independent
audience. He has reduced everything to
an elaborate theory, and ignores the persons.
We live in a
society and a time when self‑righteousness, intransigence and holy‑war
against the wicked are again becoming pervasively prevalent: a society and a
time when again we find normal to murder people on an electric chair, or to
execute the suspects summarily, and where we are called to engage in a whole
series of holy wars against this or that sin or this or that error.
The reading of
today remind us that Jesus did not invite anyone to any holy war. He invited everyone to a personal
conversion. And when he invited some
persons in particular to follow him, it was an invitation to live out their own
conversion by showing with him love, understanding and compassion to all the
victims of holy wars.
This is also his
invitation to us.