Father Koch: We need to experience mercy before we can preach mercy
January 19, 2024 at 9:00 a.m.
Gospel reflection for Jan. 21, 2024, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The story of Jonah is very familiar. In some ways, it’s so fantastic that most of us do not pay attention to all of the details in the narrative. We know nothing of him outside of the brief book in the Old Testament that bears his name. Even then, we learn little about him. His personality comes through, and it is clear that Jonah was a man of reluctance and judgment, stubborn, and given to quick anger. In the midst of whatever his ordinary life was, he heard the call of God but did not want to follow him. Called to go to the city of Nineveh to preach repentance and conversion, Jonah did not want to go, preferring instead that the judgment of God would afflict punishment and not mercy on the people.
Jonah got on a boat that was heading in the opposite direction of Nineveh, and so a great storm arose which caused the sailors on the ship to wonder what they did in order to offend one of the gods whom they worshiped. Learning that Jonah was fleeing from a mission from God, he offered himself as a sacrifice and was thrown overboard into the raging waters. At that point a great fish came along, swallowed him up and deposited him on the shores near Nineveh.
Jonah needed to flee to the deep in order to understand what God desires of him.
Simon, Andrew, James and John were Galilean fishermen working from the port at Capernaum. They have come in from a long night of fishing the deep waters of Lake Tiberius and are mending their nets. Jesus is walking along the shore when he sees them and he invites them to follow him, to become “fishers of men.” When they encounter Jesus, they are ready and respond immediately. They leave their un-mended nets and moored boats and follow him.
At the turn of the millennium, Pope John Paul II challenged the Church, not to be afraid to go into the deep waters, to seek Christ more fully and to evangelize the world.
The passages for this Third Sunday show us what happens when we come out of the deep. Jonah willingly threw himself into the depths, fully expecting that his life would be ended as a judgment against him for refusing to do God’s will and preach a mission of mercy to a sinful people. Even after the success of his mission, and the easing of God’s judgment against Nineveh, Jonah didn’t get it. He experienced mercy, offered that mercy to others, and was yet angry when the work of God through him took effect.
These first four disciples are different. Clearly, they were open to hearing the Word of God and to encountering God in new and unexpected ways in their lives. They spent a great deal of time at night, working their fishing nets, eking out a living. This offered them opportunities to speak with one another. As men of faith, they likely shared that faith with one another. They must have known God’s mercy in their lives, for as they heard the call from Jesus to be fishers of men, they did so with enthusiasm. There is no hint in the Gospels that there was ever a point when they regretted their decision or wished that they had ignored or rejected the call.
Each one of us hears the call of God in our lives. The question is whether or not we are well-disposed to his Word, or if we, like Jonah, refuse and head in the opposite direction. Jonah was forced, several times in his rather short story, to take stock of how he was responding to God and his mercy. Not all of us, however, get multiple opportunities, and we always run the risk of becoming so deaf to God that even the “Hound of Heaven” cannot break through.
Let us be open to God’s mercy so that we might become agents of mercy in the world -- true fishers of men.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.
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Gospel reflection for Jan. 21, 2024, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The story of Jonah is very familiar. In some ways, it’s so fantastic that most of us do not pay attention to all of the details in the narrative. We know nothing of him outside of the brief book in the Old Testament that bears his name. Even then, we learn little about him. His personality comes through, and it is clear that Jonah was a man of reluctance and judgment, stubborn, and given to quick anger. In the midst of whatever his ordinary life was, he heard the call of God but did not want to follow him. Called to go to the city of Nineveh to preach repentance and conversion, Jonah did not want to go, preferring instead that the judgment of God would afflict punishment and not mercy on the people.
Jonah got on a boat that was heading in the opposite direction of Nineveh, and so a great storm arose which caused the sailors on the ship to wonder what they did in order to offend one of the gods whom they worshiped. Learning that Jonah was fleeing from a mission from God, he offered himself as a sacrifice and was thrown overboard into the raging waters. At that point a great fish came along, swallowed him up and deposited him on the shores near Nineveh.
Jonah needed to flee to the deep in order to understand what God desires of him.
Simon, Andrew, James and John were Galilean fishermen working from the port at Capernaum. They have come in from a long night of fishing the deep waters of Lake Tiberius and are mending their nets. Jesus is walking along the shore when he sees them and he invites them to follow him, to become “fishers of men.” When they encounter Jesus, they are ready and respond immediately. They leave their un-mended nets and moored boats and follow him.
At the turn of the millennium, Pope John Paul II challenged the Church, not to be afraid to go into the deep waters, to seek Christ more fully and to evangelize the world.
The passages for this Third Sunday show us what happens when we come out of the deep. Jonah willingly threw himself into the depths, fully expecting that his life would be ended as a judgment against him for refusing to do God’s will and preach a mission of mercy to a sinful people. Even after the success of his mission, and the easing of God’s judgment against Nineveh, Jonah didn’t get it. He experienced mercy, offered that mercy to others, and was yet angry when the work of God through him took effect.
These first four disciples are different. Clearly, they were open to hearing the Word of God and to encountering God in new and unexpected ways in their lives. They spent a great deal of time at night, working their fishing nets, eking out a living. This offered them opportunities to speak with one another. As men of faith, they likely shared that faith with one another. They must have known God’s mercy in their lives, for as they heard the call from Jesus to be fishers of men, they did so with enthusiasm. There is no hint in the Gospels that there was ever a point when they regretted their decision or wished that they had ignored or rejected the call.
Each one of us hears the call of God in our lives. The question is whether or not we are well-disposed to his Word, or if we, like Jonah, refuse and head in the opposite direction. Jonah was forced, several times in his rather short story, to take stock of how he was responding to God and his mercy. Not all of us, however, get multiple opportunities, and we always run the risk of becoming so deaf to God that even the “Hound of Heaven” cannot break through.
Let us be open to God’s mercy so that we might become agents of mercy in the world -- true fishers of men.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.