How many made a new year resolution? I decided to exercise regularly. In fact, last week I played in a “men over 60” basketball game. We didn’t have to jump for the ball. The referee simply put the ball on the floor and whoever could bend and pick it up first got possession. You may wonder whether that's exercise.
The word of God first centers on a man named Jonah. Now when you hear “Jonah,” what do you think of? Three days in the belly of a whale; or a character who brings bad luck. Actually, the Book of Jonah is a short story: about 1300 words. It’s fiction; the bible employs many literary genres, e.g., prose and poetry, historical narratives and short stories, to communicate basic religious truths.
Jonah is a story with a simple message: God embraces everyone, Jew as well as Gentile; God only asks that we orient our lives to God and the things of God.
In the story, God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, the splendid capital of 8th century Assyria (what we know today as Iraq). Why? To preach repentance to the Ninevites.
Jonah is shocked. The Ninevites aren’t Jews; they’re Gentiles, enemies. So Jonah jumps into a boat and flees from God as far as he can. But eventually God catches up with him, and Jonah preaches “repentance” to the Ninevites. And the Ninevites shock Jonah: they actually repent; they orient their lives toward God and the things of God; they recognize with new eyes of faith the awesome presence of God in their lives; and God spares the city of Nineveh.
We may ask ourselves: do we recognize the presence of God in our everyday lives? And are we sometimes shocked – as Jonah was-- and perhaps even inspired by the faith we see in the most unlikely people?
Paul, in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth in Greece challenges us to focus on the things of God; for the things of this world are passing away. So often people concentrate so much on accumulating things -- wealth and prestige and titles -- that they forget how transitory this life is. But we, with the eyes of faith, believe that in the mystery of death we will pass, like Jesus before us, from this earthly life into a new, indescribable, transformative, heavenly reality.
Paul may be asking us: is God our first priority? Life is more than acquiring and spending, having a nice home and a big car it's more than scientific achievements, engineering marvels and economic feats. The purpose of life is, first and foremost, to be in relationship with God and one another forever. That is our purpose.
In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus urges us to orient our lives to God and the things of God! The kingdom of heaven is at hand! And then Jesus begins to call some highly unlikely people to discipleship, for example, ordinary fishermen.
These disciples saw in Jesus more than appearances. They quickly recognized that “the spirit of the Lord was upon him … and that he brought glad tidings”: yes, God became one of us so that we could become God-like. God through the dying/rising of Jesus by the power of the Spirit re-established the relationship we initially had with God. We are all one family, adopted sons and daughters of God our Father, all of us.
But are we one family? It doesn't seem so. Everywhere we find dysfunctional relationships, religiously, politically, economically and socially. Often we simply have to muddle through and make the best of the situation in which we find ourselves. To mitigate these dysfunctional relationships, Jesus probably would advise us to always have a positive can/do attitude, to put first things first, offer solutions, build relationships of trust and above all, keep our tempers.
Christianity in particular is less than one family. In fact we are a divided Christianity. But Jesus prayed at the last supper that his disciples “may all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you.”And that's why we have this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Today the world has about 1.2 billion Catholics; 800 million Protestants; and 260 million Orthodox. We Christians definitely are not always on the same page. Until Angelo Roncalli was elected Pope John XXIII in 1958, Catholics and Protestants generally emphasized what divided them.
Pope John XXIII created a transformation, especially in Catholic-Protestant-Orthdox relations. With his affable, friendly and lovable personality and his sense of humor, he moved Christians from diatribe to dialog.
For example, a reporter asked the Pope: how many people work in the Vatican? “About half,” the Pope replied.
Good Pope John realized that before people can discuss what divides them, they have to get to know one another. This search for unity reached a milestone among Catholics with the 1964 promulgation of the Decree on Ecumenism which encourages conversations with our separated brothers and sisters about what unites and what divides us and how we can cooperate, especially in humanitarian projects.
Catholics are linked with mainstream Christian churches in many ways: through a common creed, baptism, the bible and many justice and peace issues. But we're still divided on key issues, e. g., the authority of the Pope. Together we have to find ways beyond what divides us to what unites us.
And so we pray this week that we might all be one: open to conversations with other Christian traditions and at the same time faithful to our own Catholic heritage.
Pope Francis wants us to be a church that welcomes people, saints as well as sinners. In fact, the Pope sometimes describes the church as a “field hospital.” He wants us to be a compassionate church, always reformable, serving one another, especially the poor and vulnerable, open to dialogue with people of faith and people of no faith.
We are indeed a worldwide community of believers, multinational, multicolored, that remembers Jesus: yes, a community of disciples that hears God speak to us in the liturgy of the Word and celebrates in the liturgy of the Eucharist the presence of the living Christ sacramentally and mystically in the bread and wine. The living Christ is really and truly among us.
And yes, our community takes a stand on peace and justice. The worldwide Catholic Community sponsors and staffs shelters, hospices, soup kitchens, literacy programs, hospitals, schools and day care centers throughout the world. And hundreds of Catholic Relief and Refugee agencies attempt to meet the basic needs of the poor.
But we are also a community with tensions. Why is that so? Because we are human, saints as well as sinners. Some people are “messy” and make a mess out of things and, like so many things in life, we have to muddle through as best we can.
As we pray this week for Christian unity, let us give thanks to God for the Catholic faith community to which we belong: a community that calls us to a life with God here, and to an indescribable heavenly life where we shall be like God, and see God as God really is. Amen.
