Come, Follow Me

+ THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Today’s Readings: Jonah 3: 1–5, 10; Ps. 25; 1 Cor 7: 29–31; Mk 1: 14–20


The story is told that Time Magazine assigned one of its photographers to go out and take pictures of a forest fire. They told him a small plane would be waiting at the airport to fly him over the fire.

The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane stood waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, “Let’s go!” The pilot was a tense-looking man. He turned the plane into the wind, and soon they were in the air—but flying rather erratically.

The photographer was craning around and looking out the windows to find the best angle for his shots. He said, “Fly over the north side of the fire and make several low-level passes.”

“Why?” asked the nervous pilot.

“Because I’m going to take pictures!” yelled the photographer. “I’m a photographer, and that’s what photographers do. We take pictures.”

The pilot stuttered in reply, “You mean… you’re not the flight instructor?”

When Our Lord invites us to come a little closer to Him—to venture a little deeper into the ways of holiness—sometimes we feel like that student-pilot: way, way out on a limb. I think it’s a natural reaction to feel kind of nervous when you realize that you’re on the brink of a “God experience.”

And just to make things a little dicier, remember that we are creatures with true free will—so we can choose what to do. Do we turn and hightail it out of there, or do we step off the cliff into the vast unknown?

Our mass readings today illustrate both options.

We start with Jonah. You all know the story of Jonah being swallowed up by the whale. It all began when God told Jonah to go to the great pagan city of Nineveh and announce to the people that because of their great immorality, God’s wrath was coming upon them. If you look at a map of the ancient Near East, you’ll see that Nineveh lies to the northeast of Palestine. But Jonah went west. He hopped a ship to take him as far away as he could get from where the Lord wanted him to go. Why did he run away? Because he thought the mission was far too dangerous. Imagine a Hebrew preaching repentance in a pagan city! He hoped that God would find someone else to send on the mission.

A huge storm came up. The sailors were scared and started to pray to their pagan gods without success. They asked Jonah if he had done anything to offend his god. He told them that he was running away from God because he didn’t want to go on the mission to Nineveh. That’s when the crew summarily picked Jonah up and tossed him overboard into the sea. Immediately, the calm weather returned. And poor Jonah cried out to God for help.

God helped, but not in a very pleasant way. He sent a huge fish along, which gobbled up Jonah whole. Part of the humor is that the whale found that Jonah was so sour, he couldn’t stand having him for lunch—so he belched him up on the shore. And that’s where today’s reading begins. Jonah found that he had no choice but to journey to Nineveh and do as God asked of him.

And guess what? God worked mightily through Jonah, making his preaching forceful and successful. The people repented and the Lord spared them.

Now fast-forward to the gospel. Once again, we’re at the seashore. Two sets of brothers—Simon and Andrew, and James and John—were busy working at their fishing livelihood. The first two were trawling for fish. The other pair was mending their nets. Jesus walked by and called to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

And once again, we’re at a critical moment of decision. Do we or don’t we?

The Gospel says that all four of them immediately abandoned their nets—and James and John quit their crew and family, as well—so they could go off and follow Jesus.

Of course we know that Simon became Peter, the greatest of the apostles and the first pope… and John became the “beloved disciple” and author of the fourth gospel—and the other two were highly-favored apostles, as well… doing so much to establish our Church that today encompasses more than one billion souls.

The lesson for us to take away is a simple one in theory, if not in practice: when the Lord makes us an offer we can’t refuse, we really can’t refuse! We can’t let our fears, our possessions, or even our friends and families stand in our way. Instead, we’ve got to seize the day, reminding ourselves that if God has dropped a dramatic opportunity or situation in our lap, then he is going to see us through it—no matter how unlikely success may appear from a purely human perspective.

And since God is in control of everything, that just about covers it. I’d say we’re in pretty good hands!

Pray frequently for the light and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to help you figure out what God is asking of you as you make your way through life—or in the words of today’s psalm, “Teach me your ways, O Lord.” Also pray for courage, determination and a deep enough faith to plow ahead without fear. Your journey is bound to be extraordinary!