HOMILY WEEK 01 01 – Year I
The Threefold Call to Discipleship: Believe, Repent and Follow
(Heb 1:1-6; Ps 97; Mk 1:14-20)
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Liturgists usually try to choose a reading that connects with the gospel for the day. In today’s liturgy, they succeeded quite well as the author of Hebrews neatly complements the gospel of Mark, which contains three calls.
Those three gospel calls are invitations to believe, repent and follow: We are to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, to repent of our sins, and to follow him as his disciples in the task of evangelizing and renewal.
Interestingly, the gospel begins with a rather alarming comment we might overlook: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee.” To an alert reader, that statement is prophetic. John, the voice in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord (who is Jesus) was arrested because he spoke truth to political power. It would be natural to assume the same would happen to Jesus, because he who is the Truth would also speak truth to religious power. So, we can also assume that Jesus was actually “escaping” to Galilee, where all went right and he was much more accepted. Already, in the first chapter of Mark and before Jesus even begins his ministry, the looming cloud of resistance and hostility towards discipleship is established by Mark.
The first thing Jesus does is ask for faith in him, in the good news he brings, and in the kingdom of God he has come to inaugurate. Even the term “good news” is provocative to those in power, as that term, evangelion, was used by military commanders to announce a victory preceding their return from battle. The significance for us is that it is Jesus, not Caesar, who is the real ruler and victor. The fact that Jesus came to inaugurate the kingdom of God, the reign of God, the values and future of God here on earth, is still to be fully comprehended and lived out. And of course, Jesus is calling for faith in him and who he is.
This is where the author of Hebrews comes in to help us out. That first reading is all about establishing the identity of Jesus as divine – Son of God, heir of all things, exact reflection of the Father’s glory and imprint of God’s very being, creator of the whole universe and superior to the angels. That is what we are to believe, and to put our trust completely and totally in him – to, in the end, surrender our wills and lives to Jesus as the Messiah and Lord.
Jesus then calls us to repentance. That is more than just an effort to do better morally. The Greek word is metanoia, from meta meaning “highest” and nous meaning “mind.” So, Jesus is asking of us, and inviting us into, a deep profound transformation of our whole being, fitting for the kingdom he was inaugurating. We are to put on our highest mind, to be the very best person we are called to be. We are to, in the end, put on the mind of Christ, try to see reality as Jesus sees it, and to respond to reality as Jesus responds to it. Doing metanoia is allowing Jesus to transform us into his likeness through forgiveness and healing.
The opposite of metanoia is paranoia, having a closed mind and a closed fist, which easily lends itself to sin as harmatia. That Greek word has the connotation of an arrow failing to reach its target. So, sin is really falling short of the person God has designed us to be and wants us to become. The new wine of the kingdom needs fresh skins to contain its radically new and explosive power.
Then comes the remarkable call to the first disciples. For someone to follow Jesus is to be a disciple, a carbon copy of Jesus, to imitate him, to be a life-long learner or mathetes of his way and his mystery. That call to Peter, Andrew, James and John was dramatic and life-changing, as they immediately left what they were doing and began following Jesus on a brand-new trajectory for their lives.
There is a foot note in this gospel about discipleship within the context of the Church. Peter and Andrew were casting their nets into the sea, as fishermen. We are also to be casting our nets out into the world, evangelizing others, reaching out to serve the poor, and sharing our experience of the Good News of Jesus with them.
James and John, on the other hand, were in their boats and mending their nets. Along with the call to reach out and evangelize, we are to be mending our nets. We are always personally in need of reform by growing in self-awareness of how we might need forgiveness for our sins or healing of our negative attitudes, and coming to Jesus as the Savior to receive both. As the same time, we need to be always attentive to how we as an institutional church need to heal our woundedness and make amends for our mistakes of the past.
Two glaring examples of this need to mend our nets would be the scandal of sexual abuse and abuse of power covering many decades of church life, as well as the need to follow up to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission within Canada. Both need to be addressed with humble honesty and sincere effort.
The Breaking New Ground Together series held at the Star of the North over some years now has been our attempt as an Oblate retreat centre to do just that, with resource persons such as Phil Fontaine, former chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Marie Wilson and Willie Littlechild, former commissioners of the TRC process. That initiative is finding a new expression in the Aurora Living process we are currently developing. All in the name of being disciples of the master.
The Eucharist is an experience of the good news of Jesus, and a foretaste of the messianic banquet awaiting us in heaven. It calls us to do metanoia, offering us both forgiveness and healing as we listen to the Word of God and commune with the body and blood of Jesus.
May our celebration strengthen our faith in Jesus as Messiah, Son of God and Savior, as well as empower us to follow him as fishers of people, like Peter, Andrew, James and John.
