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Missionaries
with a great heart, like that of God
III Sunday in
Ordinary Time
Year B -
22.01.2006
- Jonah 3,1-5.10
- Psalm 24
- 1 Corinthians
7:29-31
- Mark 1:14-20
Reflections
After the Baptism in
the Jordan and the desert experience, Jesus begins his public life with
a fundamental statement, which Mark — from
whose Gospel we read during this Liturgical Year — presents in four
points (v.15): the time of salvation has come, and the Kingdom of
God is at the door; it is time to be converted and to believe in this
good news.
Mark's Gospel, though
short and concise, has a complete global message of its own. “The
catechumen in Mark's Gospel — today's believer, each one of us –
is called on to realise that God is about to take possession of our
lives, and comes to meet us with a mysterious initiative, which we are
challenged to accept” (Cardinal Martini). From beginning to end and
insistent question runs through the sixteen chapters of Mark: Who is
Jesus? The many healing
miracles and the new doctrine taught, right from the beginning, with
authority and by such a surprising Teacher (1:27) lead to two climax
points, one halfway through and one at the end of Mark's Gospel, in the
profession of faith of two eye-witnesses who concur: the disciple
Peter, who states: ‘You are the Christ’ (8:29), and the pagan centurion
who, at the foot of the Cross declares: ‘Truly, this man was a son of
God!’ (15:39) — an
affirmation that is immediately confirmed by the Resurrection (16:6).
The nucleus of Jesus' message is that God' initiative for the
salvation of the world is already in action: with the Incarnation of
the Son, God has definitively pitched his tent among us: in Jesus
Christ the Kingdom has reached its fulness; the salvation of everyone
must necessarily be through the Person of the God who has taken human
flesh. This event is such that the call of Jesus is fully justified:
"Repent, and believe in the Gospel" (v.15); so too is the immediate
decision to follow him "at once", leaving behind all ties and personal
plans (vv. 18, 20). The conversion entails a total change of mentality
in the way of seeing God, man and creation; on God's part there will be
no further proposals: the Gospel is already fully present in Jesus, and
there will not be another one. The Gospel-Good News is not a book of
doctrines or spiritual theories: it is Jesus himself. The first four
disciples (vv.16-20), and the others later, do not follow a doctrine,
wonderful though it may be, but a Person. They feel he can be trusted,
they open their hearts to him fully, they entrust their destiny to him.
Despite human weaknesses, they follow Him right to the point of giving
their lives for Him. *
The Master calls his disciples. He forms them, and he transforms them.
What follows is Mission: Jesus makes them fishers of men
(v.17), the bearers of the Good News par excellence, of which
humanity has extreme and urgent need, if it is not to be lost in
illusion - “because the world as we know it is passing away” (2nd.
Reading).
God loves everyone and wants all to be happy. The proof of this is the
event named "Christ"! To take this message to the ends of the earth is
the task of all his followers, called to be disciples and great-hearted
missionaries, in imitation of the great Heart of God. Not petty,
stubborn and selfish like Jonah (1st Reading) who, at first runs away
to avoid carrying out the missionary mandate given him by God for the
people of Niniveh, and then reluctantly carries it our only partially:
"making a day's journey" (v.4), then starting a sit-down strike in
protest because God is "good and merciful", always ready to forgive,
even those who are far off (see Ch.4). The experience and awareness of
'universality' is fundamental for the content of the message (the
Gospel) and for those to whom the proclamation is destined (all
nations), but also for the missionaries whom the Lord calls to be
bearers of His message of salvation.
The Pope's words
“For us Christians God is no longer, as for the philosophy that
preceded Christianity, a hypothesis, but a reality... Quite rightly
Origen sees in the parable of the lost sheep, which the shepherd puts
across his shoulders, the parable of the Incarnation of God. Yes! in
the Incarnation He came down and took our flesh upon his shoulders,
ourselves. Hence the knowledge of God became a reality, it became
friendship, communion! Let us thank the Lord because... he took our
flesh upon his shoulders and carries us along the ways of our life...
God-Emmanuel is at our side, and for the Christian has the loving face
of Jesus Christ, God made man, who made himself one of us".
Benedict
XVI
General Audience,
Wednesday 11.01.2006
In the footsteps of Missionaries
- 22/1: St. Vincent
Pallotti (1795-1850), founder of the Pallottines and promoter of the
Missions and of the lay apostolate. Pius XI called him the "Precursor
of Catholic Action".
- 22/1: Bl. Laura Vicuña, born in Chile and died in Argentina aged 13 (+1904). She
offered her life for the conversion of her mother.
- 23/1: St. Hildephonse, Bishop of Toledo (607-667), sacred
writer and true father of the Church in Spain. He gave impetus to
the Liturgy and to devotion to Our Lady.
- 23/1: Bl. Marianne Cope (1838-1918), a nun in the Franciscan family,
with decades of service among the lepers of the Hawaiian islands and on Molokai.
- 24/1: St Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop of Geneva, a great
writer and evangliser.
- 25/1: Conversion of St. Paul, "Apostle of the
Gentiles" (pagan peoples).
- 26/1: SS. Timothy and Titus, disciples and collaborators of St. Paul, and respective
Bishops of Ephesus and Crete.
- 28/1: St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church. His Summa contra Gentiles is one
of the first manuals for missionaries working among non-Christians,
particularly the Moslems.
- 28/1: St. Josef
Freinademetz (1852-1908), a Divine Word Missionary who worked in China.
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Edited by Fr. Romeo
Ballan, mcci - Former Director of CIAM, Rome
Website:
www.ciam.org “Word for the Mission”
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