RepentanceThird Sunday in Ordinary Time
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.
1 Corinthians 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.
Mark 1:14-20
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.
Edmond Lo
Repentance
Noticeable in this Sunday’s Mass readings is the theme of repentance.
On hearing Jonah’s announcement that Nineveh would be destroyed in 40 days, all of its inhabitants, great and small, people and beasts alike, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth.
While not specifically mentioned, the urgency of repentance is simmering in between the lines of the second reading: time is running out; the world in its present form is passing away!
Similarly, in the gospel reading, repentance is what Jesus asked of men in the inauguration of his public ministry: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15).
As a matter of fact, even God repented in the first reading: “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” (Jon 3:10).
But wait! Repentance suggests a change of heart, a turning away from a previous disposition that is wrong. If God is almighty, all-knowing, perfect, unchanging and everything, he can’t possibly repent. Correct?
Correct. However, to understand the Jonah story properly we need to understand the biblical use of the word “repent” or similar attributes as applicable to God. Referring to a similar passage in Genesis 6:6 in which God is said to “regret” that he had made man, St. John Paul II explains that the Bible is actually speaking of a Father who feels compassion for humanity and shares its pain (cf. Dominum et Vivificantem, n.39). In other words, the biblical meaning of “repent” or “regret”, when attributed to God, stresses the internal movement of God’s feelings, which are filled with love and compassion. God’s “repentance” in the Jonah story is not a change of heart as the word is generally understood to mean. Rather, it is an anthropomorphic expression (the attribution of human features, feelings, and behavior to nonhuman beings) often employed by Old Testament literatures to emphasize God’s love and compassion for the humans, or for the inhabitants of Nineveh who repented their sins in the Jonah story.
Consistent with the theme of repentance, the Marcan account of the call of the first disciples differs from the Johannine account (Jn 1:35 ff) in its emphasis on complete abandonment: “Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him” (Mk 1:20).
Fr. Anthony Ho
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