3rd Sunday - An Invitation to Freedom

What was similar and what was different between the Gospel and first Reading?
And what does it say to us and how we live our lives?
What is the Good News?
First, the big similarity, Repentance.   Repentance which means change the direction of our lives.
Both Jonah and Jesus communicate God’s desire for a change in people.
Yet, it’s the difference between Jonah and Jesus, or rather the difference in the motivation for repentance that is important.
Jonah preached the wrath of God.  “forty days more and you will be destroyed!”
He uses fear.  He represents a stereotypical preacher, probably that image we have in our mind anyway.
Jesus’ approach is vastly different:  It’s an invitation.  The Kingdom of Heaven is near; it is a time fulfillment, but this is not to cause fear.  
Change your lives AND believe in the Good News
The Good News means that God truly desires us to be part of his Kingdom.
It is a Kingdom of mercy, compassion, generosity, forgiveness, self-giving for others, openness.  It is a kingdom of love and community. Paul will state this in his letter to the Romans.
Where there is compassion, mercy, et al, there is stability, there is an end to needless suffering; there is true, TRUE freedom.
This means we have to repent, we change the direction of our lives, away from former lives and attitudes that do not reflect the kingdom, and change to an attitude that is of the Kingdom.


This is literally and figuratively shown by the disciples.  They changed the direction of life:  they left behind their livelihood and family.
Here is what I like, and this is what I think is essential for us: this repentance did not come easy for these disciples.

They did not enter into the kingdom right then and there; rather they fought each other, they fought Jesus, they did not understand him, they made mistakes….  Jesus at times clearly got frustrated with them.
It was not until the Resurrection that they finally began to be changed and enter into the kingdom, and we are heirs of that change Today.
See, we are those same disciples.  We are invited into a better life,  and we are invited to change the direction of our lives.   So that we can experience God’s kingdom and find that freedom, find that end to needless suffering.
For 99.99% of us, that experience of the kingdom does not happen instantaneously, but like the disciples it is a journey, a process.

We will stumble, we will make mistakes, we will resist Jesus, we will resist others.
YET,God remains faithful to the invitation.  

God does not give up on us, EVER!
We will make mistakes.  Others will make mistakes.  All of us will sllp, and that includes the Church; we will fall back into old patterns.  We will get frustrated with ourselves and others.
Don’t beat ourselves up (and don’t beat up others for their mistakes). God’s invitation still stands.  God forgives.
Reflect back onto the the Cross.  That was THE mistake of all times, and God forgave us, and invited us back to the journey, which is the Eucharist.
Okay, we make mistakes.   Then we come to reconciliation, we confess, and we experience that Forgiveness and experience God’s invitation, and we get up and start up again.
We journey on in compassion, kindness, humility, mercy.  
We do good and avoid evil.  
We take one step forward at least each day, and journey with Jesus, into a direction and into a new life.
The Kingdom is always at hand, always right there!
Don’t let ourselves or anyone else keep us from it.

The invitation is there, what are we scared of?

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