JESUS IS THE PROMISED PROPHET

IV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 1:21-28

According to Mark, Jesus became famous and people from all Galilee came to him. They were impressed by his miracles and many people went to him for healing. And they were impressed as well by his teaching, because “he taught them with authority” and he showed this authority by giving orders to unclean spirits and they obeyed him. Jesus had a great aura about him that made him remarkable and set him aside from the scribes. That’s why people were ready to listen to him and follow him. Many of them asked if he was not the prophet God had promised to Moses, that is the Messiah.

The promised Messiah was expected to be king, priest and prophet. Being a descendant of David, he would sit on his throne and be the eternal king who would rule the world. And he would be a priest in the line of Melchizedek who was priest and king at the same time. Finally, he would be a prophet like Moses. In that role, he would be the voice of God - that is the Word that can be heard without instilling fear in the hearts of people. As indicated to Moses, this Word would become incarnate and be understood by human ears. Being that Voice of God in the middle of his people, he came close to them, thus touching their hearts and their lives.

In the book of Deuteronomy (18:15-20), God warns Moses of the possibility of false prophets and over the centuries many false prophets have appeared. Many of them announce themselves and ignore the centrality of Christ, proposing false doctrines that are not God’s way. Unfaithful to the Word of God, they present their words as the true teaching. Many times, they use words and concepts that sound Christian but are not. By doing so, they bring confusion and lead people astray. The new ideologies that plan to take over the world justify themselves by presenting ideals like diversity, equity and inclusion, behind which they divide the world into oppressor and oppressed and do it along the lines of race and gender.

Only Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life and if we live in the hope of being accepted into the Kingdom of God, we must follow him and become his disciples. We cannot distort His Word and set ourselves up in his place.

O that today you would listen to his voice!

  ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,

  as on that day at Massah in the desert

when your fathers put me to the test;

  when they tried me, though they saw my work.’ (Ps 95)

REPENT, AND BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS

III SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Jonah 3:1-5,10

The story of Jonah trying to run away from God is well known. He was called and ordered by God to go to Nineveh, but he did not agree with the mission entrusted to him. Before such an attitude, we may ask what kind of prophet was he. Indeed, he does not fit the profile of a prophet. He heard the call and he understood the mission given to him, but he decided to ignore that call and go as far away as possible from Nineveh. Jonah was forced to realise that it is impossible to run away from God and that we cannot impose our ways on him. In the end, God’s will prevails. 

We may ask: Why such a strange attitude from Jonah? Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, that had destroyed the kingdom of Israel in the North and had tried to conquer Jerusalem in the South. Following their policy on the conquered lands, they took most of the population into captivity. Thus, Nineveh represented the enemy intent on eradicating the people of Israel from their homeland. They were evil people who profited from exploitation and oppression. Nineveh represents a Godless society which has become a disordered society, dominated by the lust for pleasure, the fight for power and the ambition for wealth. In the end, human rights are despised and human dignity is trampled upon. A society that ignores God’s commandments is on the way to becoming less and less human. The situation in Nineveh leads us to look at our modern society, which has rejected God and turned its back on the great values of truth, justice and uprightness, essential for us to build a world of peace. A society that follows such a path is on the way to annihilation. And God sent Jonah to warn the people of Nineveh of what would happen to them. Jonah was not pleased since he thought that the inhabitants of Nineveh did not desire God’s care, compassion and mercy. He wanted their punishment, not their salvation. However, God’s ways are different from our ways and he judges lovingly. He does not feel pleasure in the destruction of the sinner and he waits patiently for his conversion. The warning was serious, but its purpose was not condemnation but salvation. And this salvation is offered to all peoples, even to those who try to live without God. God gives an opportunity to all, without exception.

In the end, Jonah had to go and carry out his mission because it is impossible to run away from God. The people of Nineveh heard the message, were touched by it, recognised their sins, made penance and turned back to God. And God was merciful to them and withdrew the punishment announced to them. We are called upon to behave like the people of Nineveh.

In the Gospel, Mark presents the message of Jesus’ first preaching: “Repent, and believe the Good News.” That is the way to enter the Kingdom of God. We must repent from our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour who came to reconcile us with God.

Jesus goes on calling disciples to send them with the mission to announce the Good News to all peoples of the world. May we answer as Andrew and Simon, James and John did.

HEARING GOD’S CALL

II SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - John 1:35-42

In the Holy Scriptures, we can find many examples of God’s calling, each one of them presenting a special aspect of God’s presence and intervention in one’s life. In this Sunday’s liturgy, we are presented, in the first reading, with the call of Samuel, who being consecrated to God by his mother, grew up in the temple. Being very young, he had not experienced yet God’s relationship with him: “Samuel had as yet no knowledge of the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” (1 Sam 3:3-10). So he could not recognise God’s voice and mistook it for the voice of Eli, the High Priest. However, in Samuel, we find the readiness to answer immediately, once called. Called three times, and three times he answered: “Here I am”. He did not delay or find excuses. In Bemba, there is a proverb that expresses well this quick answer to being called: “Uwaitwa, tafwala bwino.” - Who is called, has no time to go and dress well. He must answer there and then. Samuel did that. After so much insistence, Eli recognised that it was the Lord who was calling the young lad and instructed Samuel to give the proper answer: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” Samuel needed someone to guide him in the ways of the Lord, prompting him to give the right answer and have the right attitude. We must be ready to listen, so that we may what God wants from us.

The gospel presents also another instance of the guidance received from others to be able to meet the Lord and follow him. Seeing Jesus passing by, John the Baptist pointed him out to two of his disciples: “Look, there is the lamb of God.” Hearing this proclamation of faith, they went after Jesus. Aware that he was being followed, Jesus asked: “What do you want?” They wanted to know him and discover what was so special about him.  Jesus’ invitation was simple and straightforward: “Come and see.” Even today, Jesus addresses to us the same invitation: “Come and see.” We must have the personal experience of encountering Jesus, allowing our lives to be touched by him.

Having made the experience, they could not keep it a secret and one of them, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, passed the message to his brother, taking him to Jesus. The gospel of John stresses the essential role of those who have met Jesus in taking others to Him, for them to have the same experience, thus becoming his disciples. All of us are given the role of Eli, of John the Baptist and Andrew, helping the others to listen to God’s voice and taking them to Christo so that in him they may find salvation.

PAGANS SHARE THE SAME INHERITANCE

THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD - Matthew 2:1-12

The Epiphany, also known as the Feast of Kings, is the feast in which we celebrate God’s offer of salvation to all peoples. The Magi or Wise men represent the Gentiles - that is people from all nations - who were attracted to the Lord and found in him meaning for their lives.

Matthew presents a clear contrast between the people of Israel embodied in their leaders - King Herod, the chief priests and the scribes of the people - and the wise men who came from the East.

The people of Israel had forgotten the experience of the Exodus and were unable to recognise the signs of the Lord’s presence. That’s why they got worried and were perturbed by the news of the birth of the Messiah. For them, that infant king was a big threat and they were ready to do everything to get rid of him. The Wise Men had a completely different attitude. They were people who paid attention to what was new, allowing themselves to be challenged, even if they did not know where that would take them. They were in search of the truth and for salvation. This search led them to a big journey - the journey that would change their lives forever. This journey is the journey of faith, in which we go forward, through difficulties and uncertainties. It is as if we move aimlessly. Will we arrive? Where and when? Is there anything else beyond the journey itself? Certainly, in their long journey from the East, the Wise Men felt tired and discouraged, but they went on searching, guided by the star, which dispelled the darkness of their travelling. At certain moments, they had nothing else to guide them but the immense desire to arrive. It seems that the journey became more and more difficult as they approached the end of their journey. The star disappeared, but their effort and commitment to the search. Lost, they inquired from the ones who were supposed to know. We may get help even from those who are enemies and who behave like the anti-Christ. Finally, they arrived and met the child with his mother Mary. It was the fulfilment of a dream. And they prostrated themselves in worship, offering the “gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.”.

Today is a day of thanksgiving to God for his love and mercy. The Feast of Epiphany is the celebration of this great mystery: “It means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel.” (Ep 3:5-6)