This Sunday's Message
Home--Directions--Pastor's
Message--Mass Schedule--Clergy
and Ministry--Upcoming
Events--Links
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 23, 2000
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: "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.
Second Reading--(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.
Gospel Reading--(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.
Pastor's Message: Patience
Why is it anyhow that the less patience a person has the more they seem to actually lose it? Perhaps there is no one more impatient than the husband whose wife has been telling him for the past hour that she'll be ready in a minute. Often patience can be a minor form of despair disguised as a virtue. But there are those times when patience is mistakenly considered a virtue when it is clearly a case of the person just not knowing what to do. Parents can learn many things from their children such as how much patience do they really have when it comes to fathering or mothering their children. And a mother's patience probably is never really put to the test until the TV breaks down during a rainy weekend. Surely, the biggest problem with boring people is that they always seem to be endowed with much more patience than their listeners.
A song made popular by any number of artists in the 1970's and which melodiously captures the very quintessence of the virtue of patience is called I WILL WAIT FOR YOU: "The clock will tick-away the hours one by one / And then the time will come when all the waiting's done / The time when you return and find me here and run / If it takes forever I will wait for you / For a thousand summers I will wait for you / Till you're back beside me / Till I'm holding you / Till I hear you sigh here in my arms / Anywhere you wander, anywhere you go / Everyday remember how I love you so / In your heart believe what in my heart I know / That forevermore I'll wait for / For you."
The Catholic Church defines patience as endurance. Patience is the virtue that enables one to bear suffering over a long period of time, courageously and without rancor. Patience is part of the cardinal virtue of fortitude and is to be distinguished from indifference and insensitivity to misfortune. When we reflect upon the ageless wonder of the created universe we can only marvel at how immense is the patience of Almighty God. The Almighty has been waiting for millions of years for humankind to get with it. The Almighty's endless patience might well seem totally unreasonable, especially to most of us living in the instant world of the twenty-first century. But how often does that which comes fast go fast, as well? How often most of those get-rich-quick schemes are actually go-for-broke fiascos? How many of those Billy Graham instantaneous conversions to Jesus Christ really persevere? Christian growth is for the most part a very slow and quite often a very painful process. But no pain -- no growth! It is unlikely that most of the Apostles of Jesus were instant converts. They obviously had to think about it for some time. And waiting for them to make-up their minds required a lot of patience on Jesus' part, especially since He knew His time in this world was really very short. And surely the Apostles had a lot of baggage to leave behind (family and livelihood) as well as a lot changing of themselves to go through. The gospels relate that they were far from being perfect followers of Jesus and far from being perfect saints. But Jesus was very much with His Apostles. And He is very much with us. So let's be patient with ourselves. For God is not through with us -- as of yet!
Fr. George Griffin