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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

Sunday 3rd (B) in Ordinary Time

1st Reading (Jonah 3:1-5.10): The word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying: «Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you». So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, «Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed», when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
Responsorial Psalm: 24
R/. Teach me your ways, o Lord.
Your ways, o Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.

Remember that your compassion, o Lord, and your love are from of old. In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, o Lord.

Good and upright is the Lord; thus he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble his way.
2nd Reading (1Cor 7:29-31): I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.
Versicle before the Gospel (Mk 1:15): Alleluia. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel. Alleluia.
Gospel text (Mk 1,14-20): After John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee and began preaching the Good News of God. He said, «The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe the Good News». As Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net in the lake, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, «Follow me, and I will make you fish for people». At once, they abandoned their nets and followed him. Jesus went a little farther on and saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee; they were in their boat mending their nets. Immediately, Jesus called them and they followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men.

«Change your ways and believe the Good News»

Fr. Lluís ROQUÉ i Roqué (Manresa, Barcelona, Spain)

Today, the Church invites us to change our ways and, through Jesus, is telling us: «Change your ways and believe the Good News» (Mk 1:15). We will, therefore, have to pay attention to what Jesus Christ is saying, while correcting and improving what is needed.

Any human action connects with God's eternal designs about us and with the vocation to listen to Jesus, to follow Him in everything and to proclaim Him, just as the first disciples did, as millions of persons have done and as we try to do, too.

We now have the opportunity to find God through Jesus Christ; it is now, therefore, the moment of our life to connect us to either a happy or miserable eternity; it is also now, the time God provides us with, to meet Him, to live as his sons and to make our daily events to become loaded with the divine transcendence Jesus Christ —with his life through time— has poured on them.

We cannot miss this opportunity!: our life may be more or less lengthy in time, but will always be too short, «for the world in its present form is passing away» (1Co 7:31). And afterwards, the eternity; with God and His faithful followers, in a life full of happiness and glory, or far away from God —with those unfaithful to Him— in a life of total darkness.

The hours, days, months and years, are not for us to waste, nor to spend in relaxation while letting them go by almost unnoticed with a futile “not too bad”. They are rather for us to live up —here and now— following what Jesus Christ has proclaimed in the saving Gospel: live in God, by loving everything and everybody. This is why, those who have loved —Mary, Mother of God and our Mother too; the saints; and those who have remained faithful till the very end of their earthly life— have been able to hear that: «Well done, my good and faithful servant (…). Come, share your master's joy» (Mt 25:23).

Let us be converted! It is worth our while!: we shall love, and we shall be happy, starting right now!