The Nearness of God’s Kingdom And Its Exigencies!

(Homily 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)

(Sunday of the Word of God)

      The liturgical readings of this Sunday are beaming with diverse hints, ranging from the call to conversion, the consciousness of the presence of God’s kingdom to the existential transformation of those who have received this call and decided to follow Him. The readings enable us to understand that there are no enemies to defeat, to conquer or to dominate, but only brothers and sisters to convert and to transform into friends. There are no situations so desperate as to be stronger than the love of God, that invites us for a change of mind and heart  no matter how far we have strayed. In fact, today as we celebrate the Sunday of the Word of God we are invited more than ever to focus and refocus our attention on His powerful Word that creates, recreates, changes and transforms. Jesus says: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (Jn. 6:63). Little wonder, God’s word brings about change and produces effect. We are therefore called to rediscover the irresistible attraction of this Word.

     The passage of the first reading (Jonah 3:1-5.10) is taken from the context where Jonah carried out his mandate of preaching repentance to the people of Nineveh. This was historically a period not too long from the return of the Jews from exile in Babylon, we can imagine the grudges every Jew bore against those nations that enslaved them, and Jonah was not left out. Little wonder, he attempted to run away from God. Jonah could be seen from the lenses of our contemporary world, as one who refused to pick God’s call or switched off his phone purposefully. One may therefore ask: Why did God ask him to go to Nineveh? Nineveh then was the capital city of Assyria, it was a commercial crossroads, there was an in flux of people, it was also a “sin City”. God sent him to go and preach about repentance or they face destruction. On the account of this, Jonah decided to run away from God’s presence, he walked away on God, the psalmist captured the futility of Jonah’s attempt vividly well when he says “where shall I go to escape your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence? (Ps. 139:7-12). On the bid to run away, God tracked him down. He has already set out on his journey of escape. And on their way in the sea,  they started experiencing turbulence, he did not deny to be the one, he surrendered himself and he was thrown into the sea and a big fish swallowed him. After three days he was vomited at the sea shore facing the city of Nineveh.

     Viewed from the lenses of the recent happenings in our world today, are we not like Jonah sometimes? We are like Jonah when we think that the Word of God is outdated and meaningless; when we abandon His ways and follow our own human designs; when we tend to put a limit to God’s mercy. And that is the syndrome of Jonah (the attempt to replace God’s logic with human logic), the attempt and tendency to indicate to God who and who not to forgive, the temptation of categorizing certain people to be out of the coverage of God’s mercy. Finally, the author of this book stresses an important fact, and that is that the people of Israel whom he thinks are upright are hard hearted, while the people of Nineveh, even though sinners changed immediately they heard the word of God. Indeed, the people of Nineveh teach us how to be prompt in responding to God’s call, and precisely today, responding to Jesus’ call for repentance.

     In this Gospel passage (Mk 1:14-20) according to St. Mark Jesus started his preaching and ministry with the words “the time is fulfilled”, which is no longer the time of prophecy and of promises, but the time of realization, a time of God’s action. Afterwards, Jesus announces the Good News per excellence: “The kingdom of God is near. Repent, and believe in the Gospel”.  Thus, the central theme of Jesus’ preaching was the nearness of God’s Kingdom, as such with and through the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry, the Kingdom of God has become not only an eschatological, but also an existential reality, a reality indeed to be lived and experienced in the here and now through the value of inclusiveness. We can create the situation or better the reality of the Kingdom of God wherever we are, in as much as the individuals therein are ready to change their ways of life and turn away from the sin of exclusiveness, which brings divisions and discriminations between persons, tribes and nations.

     This exhortation to the fulfilment of time and to repentance is Jesus’ message, most probably taken from John the Baptist, however, with a different undertone. While John says that God was to act soon, Jesus proclaims that God is beginning to act. This is the fulfilment of time that the event in the Old Testament is now beginning to happen. We need to jettison the understanding of the kingdom of God, only as a reward or something we will acquire at the end, as an eschatological possession, and make a spiritual paradigm shift to the understanding of God’s kingdom from the stand point of “being”. We are called to create Kingdom situation where we are by living it out. The kingdom of God thus, is not just a reality that comes at the end, rather it is a reality that should model and transform our lives, our relationships and our world view in the hic et nunc of our existence.

     Furthermore, the call and challenge to repent means more than to be simply sorry for one’s individual sins. The Greek word for repentance “meta-noiein” throws more light on this. “Meta-noiein” literally means change of one’s mind. However, we may well presume that Jesus must have used its Hebrew equivalent: “shub”, which means to turn around 180 degrees, a radical change of mind toward sin, a conscious moral separation from sin. In that bid, re-orienting one’s life or attitude towards God. It is all about making Jesus and His words the point of reference in one’s life. This invitation to repent has within it, a demand of faith. Little wonder, our evangelist added “believe in the Gospel”.

     The passage is closed with a sort of fulfilment of Jesus’ preaching, with the call of the disciples, this indeed, serves as an illustration of what it means to repent and believe in the Gospel. Repenting and believing entails liberation from and liberation for respectively, it has to do with being attached to the person of Jesus and to journey along with him, following him wherever He goes (cf. Rev. 14:4), even to the cross. This second part of the Gospel talks about the call of the first four disciples, who will later become resurrection messengers of the Gospel. As we can see, the call here, occurred as they were going about their daily business (fishing), not during a special moment per se. The call of God is completely gratuitous, “gratia gratis data”. He calls freely and gratuitously and he expects a corresponding action from us: to answer freely and with immediacy too. They left everything and followed him, just like the inhabitants of Nineveh that were given 40 days to repent and they did. They condition for discipleship is to follow Him Here, Now, As you are, but with the prospect and readiness for  a change.

     The second reading (1 Cor 7:29-31) on its part enjoins us to treasure the present time and transform it into a time of grace, by living in the spirit of detachment from the world, with heaven in view. Therein, St. Paul emphasized that the form of this world is passing away. This world and its realities are provisional. St. Paul is not inviting us to despise all material goods, rather to give earthly things their true importance, he invites us not to make the things of this world idols (life, position, wealth). We should have our gaze and attention fixed on the Kingdom of God, which is both an existential and eschatological reality.

     Frankly speaking, the three enemies that hinder the realization of God’s Kingdom are: division, discrimination and exclusion. At the time of Jesus many people were discriminated and excluded, ranging from children, women, and the disabled to those with contagious diseases, and ailments. Little wonder, Jesus came with a message of transformation, a message that should bring about radical change and shift in paradigm. Unfortunately even till today, the presages of these discrimination, division and exclusion are still hunting us. Yet we are still confronted with a veritable question that is still begging for answer: what is the import of Jesus’ message in our society and in our world? What indeed, is the import of the nearness of His kingdom in our societies, countries and our world torn apart by the presages of violence, hatred, war, lack of respect for human dignity and life? What is the import of this message in a country like ours, where human beings are killed mercilessly with impunity? Indeed, we need to re-echo strongly the clarion call of Jesus: “Time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk. 1:14).

     Yes! Time is fulfilled, not just an ordinary time in the temporal process, but the time of grace, here, for time Jesus uses Kairos and not kronos. Kairos is a time of grace, a special and extraordinary time within time flux, a transformed time in time that transforms people and situations. May the vitality of this transformed time, transform us, our ugly human conditions and our society, even the world at large. May the Eternal Word of the Father transform us ! Amen.

(Fr. Vitus Chigozie, SC)