3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, B January 21, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
If there was a bank that could give you a return of 50% or more on your retirement, would you put your money there? Given that the average is probably closer to 5%, that sounds impossibly good. So you’d be right to ask “what’s the catch?” The catch is that, every year, there’s a 50% chance this bank – and all the money in it – simply disappears. The logical question here is: what good is a retirement plan if the money disappears before I retire?
Now, what if that same bank offered good deals on regular things like daily checking and bill pay? What if that bank were your only option for necessary day-to-day purchases? You’d use it because you have to. Still, knowing that the bank will disappear means you should use it only as needed. You should keep the truly valuable stuff elsewhere. That way, when it does disappear, you don’t lose everything.
Well, that bank is what St. Paul is talking about in our second reading. The bank is this world and the money is your heart and soul. Instead of an amazing retirement package, what this world offers is pleasure, comfort, and all sorts of good, but temporary things. Invest your heart into it and you might even get huge returns. But, just like that hypothetical bank, it could also disappear in an instant. Also just like that bank, the fact is that you kind of have to use the world for certain things. You’ve got to invest enough of yourself in the world to make a living and maintain relationships.
So no, St. Paul isn’t saying “never cry, don’t have fun, don’t buy anything, and leave your husband!” He is saying that, even though you have to do these things, don’t get too attached. Why? This bank, this “world in its present form is passing away.”
Most people have no idea how long a bank will last. If you’re careful and do your homework, it’s a reasonable bet that any reputable institution is going to be around long enough to pay out your retirement and other investments. Thousands of people retire successfully every day. But the second you know that a bank will disappear, it changes the way you look at everything. We do know the world will end, so that should change the way we invest ourselves. But does it? God, I hope so.
It did for the Ninevites. Jonah cries out, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed” and we see an almost instant change. Forget the harvest, forget the social maneuvering and the political agendas. Stop everything, put on sackcloth, and pray that God changes his mind about destroying us all. 40 days is just not enough time for any of that other stuff to matter, so let’s put our focus on what does: salvation. And it works! They get to keep living. It is precisely by letting go of ordinary business that the Ninevites get to benefit from it at all. Now that they aren’t wiped off the face of the earth, the harvest matters again. It just… doesn’t matter the most and it only matters as long as we’re good enough to not be destroyed before we can collect the profits.
Some scholars are pretty sure that the story of Jonah and the Ninevites is more a parable than literal history. The fact is that it doesn’t matter which it is because it is the Word of God either way. Jesus, God, Scripture all use both parables and history to teach us the Truth. The truthis our relationship with God matters more than everything else in the world and that, if we don’t have a good relationship with God, then nothing in this world matters at all.
Jesus, who is the truth, is teaching us this same lesson when he calls the Apostles to follow him. They don’t just close up shop, they abandon their nets to follow. Why? Because Jesus just told them “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” In other words, he says the world is going to end so they should divest from that world. Instead, they should hear the good news: God offers us a better investment if we’re willing to divest from the world first.
Did you catch that? The Gospel – which literally means “good news” – isn’t just “God loves you and wants you to be nice.” No, the good news is our investments don’t have to end when the world does. By the way, this is the first thing Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark. Not “be nice” or “you’re fine as you are.” No, Jesus’ very first lesson is: “get right with God while you can; judgment is coming” In a word, repent.
The Church is not here to end poverty or solve political disputes. It is the number one charitable organization on the planet and has been pretty much from its beginning. Yet, even that charity’s goal is repentance. Jesus asks the apostles to abandon their nets in order to become fishers of men, not philanthropists.
The Church’s entire mission is summed up in that single word: repent. The Ninevites, the Corinthians, everyone is expected to use the things of this world loosely, “buying as not owning” and such. We live in this world, but we must invest our hearts in the next. That often requires us to literally sacrifice things of this world: losing profits because you’re honest and fair, avoiding some luxuries because they distract you, fasting as an act of devotion, giving to the poor to help them and to teach yourself to let go of money. We can be shrewd and profitable, but we need these practices to keep first things first.
Still, we must not smooth over the radicality of the gospel. Even if you and I do not… cannot literally abandon the nets of our lives, we must remember that we are the Church; we share that mission to proclaim repentance in the way we live. How can you and I manifest some element, some reflection of that radical call to show others that the world is passing away? That we need to repent?
Lent is less than a month away. Start thinking, praying about it now: How will you divest more from the unreliable bank of the world? The Light of the World retreat is a good way for you to reconnect with the reality of the gospel. Or, who can you call to repentance by encourage them to attend? What most competes with your love for God? How can you let that go a little more? If Mass still seems tedious or boring, what can you do to learn to love it? Have you asked God to change your heart, to teach you to love it? Have you considered the Eucharistic Revival small group starting next week?
Repentance is essential. Loosening our grip on the world and its grip on us is essential. But it’s also the work of God’s grace. Rather than defaulting to a passive “I’ll give up desserts again,” will you ask Him what you need to divest? Will you invite his grace to inspire in you the same courage he inspired in the apostles? Whatever it is you need to repent of, I urge you to remember why this is good news. By letting go of those nets, by escaping the net of worldly distraction, you are set free to do the one thing guaranteed to give you the most return on your investment: follow Him.