Today’s readings: Jonah 3,1-5.10; 1 Corinthians 7,29-31; Mark 1, 14-20
There have always been raging debates about the relationship between religion and politics since the inception of Christianity. The public engagement of believers of all faiths is very often challenged and silenced in the name of secularism and the so-called need for society to be free from religious interference. Yet the role of religion in public life needs to be fruitfully and positively explored and approached.
The highlight of today’s readings is ‘time’. There is a time that belongs to us and it is important that we learn how best to manage our life and our daily agenda. But then there is also a time that belongs to God and that is not after life. Faith is never meant to be a fleeing into spiritualism. Faith helps us to live concretely and passionately our time, while keeping our gaze on the essentials.
It is striking how Jonah went into the city and preached: “Only 40 days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed”. Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed: “The time has come”. St Paul writes to the Corinthians:”Our time is growing short”.
There is a sense of urgency which many a time was taken to mean that the end was imminent. But urgency implies also that time is running out, in the sense that in many situations we are called to act boldly and take positions before it’s too late.
What transpires mostly from the story of Jonah is his judgment on Nineveh and his refusal to go there. Nineveh was a pagan city, the capital of a political superpower very oppressive of Jewish religion. Jonah did not believe that his mission could have worked out successfully with the people there and he refused to be a prophet of a lost cause.
The worst that can happen to us believers is to give in and renounce to the prophetic power of our faith which many a time we prefer to comfortably celebrate within the boundaries of religion rather than translate as bread in the wilderness. The words that open Mark’s gospel are very significant: “The kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the Good News”.
‘Repent’ here stands for change of attitude, of perspective and of direction. Mark encapsulates this radical change with Jesus, “after John had been arrested”, going into Galilee and from there giving a new kickstart with fresh people. We always live between times old and new, between the securities of the past and the risks of the present and the future. It is a pity when we get stuck in our understanding of reality, in our judgments, and in our strategies.
The God who comes is always earthquake, turmoil, upheaval. He can make things new even when everything seems dull and dying. Out of the ruins God brings innovation. Jonah, having refused his first call, was given a second chance and Nineveh, which he judged as unredeemable, flourished and turned to God. Even the distress and despair of the first disciples of John, turned out to be a new beginning for the four men who accepted to join in as disciples of the new Master.
There are aspects of historical frustration surrounding us when we think of ISIS or of the imbalance in the management of justice in our world or even when we explore how the dream of a more humane world at times sounds futile. The prospects of millions and millions of people around the globe are gloomy. The remedy to all this surely calls on all of us with urgency. Time is becoming short because there is too much suffering while we continue to find comfort in a false spiritualism.
The words of Jesus that the kingdom of God is at hand are words that apply also for our times. The prospect of God’s kingdom and God’s times is the seed of new hope put in the hearts of those who believe and, through their witness, in the heart of the world. There is reason to hope.
Jonah’s rethinking made him bold enough to face the challenges of a pagan city, letting go of his prejudices and trusting the power of God’s word. God repents when we repent, when we let go of our categorising people. God believes in the world he created and wants no one to perish. This is the God of Jonah and of Jesus Christ who gives us the reason to hope.