Mark 1: 14-20
Jesus speaks some truly wonderful words to each one of us in today's Gospel. They are words that call us to a change of mind and to a change of heart. In the older translation used at Sunday liturgies, the words were, "Reform your lives and believe the good news!" In the translation used in Sunday liturgies now, the words are, "Repent and believe the good news."
Both expressions, "reform your lives" and "repent," have the same fundamental meaning. Fr. Michael Leek thinks the best way to express this meaning is in the words, "Think again." Think again about why we are here. Think again about the experiences of God that have touched our lives. Think again about the deepest longings and desires of our hearts. Think again about reordering the priorities of our lives. (1)
What will motivate us to rethink and change our lives? Belief in the Good News has the power to move us. And what teaching of Jesus is at the heart of the Good News. It is the teaching of Jesus that God is our Father, our Abba, our tender hearted Daddy.
The ultimate purpose of the Bible is not to console us or to teach us wisdom. The ultimate purpose of the Bible is to bring us back to God. The Father who created us wants us back in the intimate relationship of a father with his child. The Bible is His love letter to each one of us. To learn about His love, however, we must open and read it. And when we open and read God's love letter, we discover that the Father is a Shepherd who seeks out, rescues, and saves the lost. We discover that He is a prodigal Father who runs down a country road to embrace his wayward son and to welcome him to a banquet. As we read and ponder the Father's love letter, over and over again we hear Him say, "Come home, daughter. Come home, son. Come back to the Father who made you and saves you in His beloved Son, Jesus." (2)
Fr. Robert DeGrandis tells a moving story about a girl named Doris who discovered that God is truly and indeed her Father. She had an experience that did indeed cause her to think again, to repent, to reform her life, to turn herself around.
Here is the story Fr. DeGrandis tells about Doris.
- When she was just a little girl, her father abandoned the family, left her mother and the four
kids. Until she celebrated her 18th birthday, she thought he was dead. Through all those
years, she never spoke to him or saw him. Her Aunt Emma, her father's sister, told her that
her dad was alive. Doris was astonished. She gave her aunt her high school graduation
picture to give to him in the hope that he would contact her. Her father never tried to make
contact with Doris. Later on in life Doris discovered Jesus. She committed her life to Him.
Through prayer and worship, she built a personal relationship with Jesus. She came to know
how much Jesus loved her. But she was afraid of God the Father. Experiencing Him as a
tender-hearted and loving Father seemed impossible. I think we can understand why.
One day Doris learned that her father had died. Her deepest prayer to renew contact with him would never come about. She felt so hurt and sad she visited her Aunt Emma. Aunt Emma told Doris some of the details about her dad's life and death. She also told her that the reason he never got in touch with Doris was because of shame. He felt ashamed that as a young father he had abandoned his wife and kids. Doris visited her father's grave. Her search was over. Her heart was engulfed with anguish. She stood by his grave and wept, realizing that this was as close as she would ever get to her father. In her pain she cried out to God, "It's too late, too late! I have no father!" At that point she heard a voice say, "I am your Father." She looked around the cemetery but no one was there. Once more she heard the words, this time in a voice that was even more soft and tender, "I am your Father." The God Doris had feared had spoken to her. Then she felt a great wave of peace engulf her spirit and the words of Paul floated into her mind, "Then God's own peace, which is beyond all understanding, will stand guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:7) With that experience of God as her loving Abba, she was healed. The memory of her own dad remained. But all the pain was gone. That afternoon at her father's graveside in that lonely cemetery, Doris underwent a complete change of heart and mind. God was no longer a remote figure in the Blessed Trinity. He became the Father she talked with, walked with, praised each day. She became aware that this wonderful Father God loves all His children and impatiently awaits the day that He will draw us close to Himself forever. (3)
When Jesus preaches to us today, "Repent and believe the good news," He has one earnest desire. He wants each of us to come to know God as our loving Father. He wants each of us to know that we are His beloved son, His beloved daughter. He wants each of us to know that our destiny is to be in a relationship of love with this loving, tender hearted Father forever.
That good news has the power to turn our lives around.
(1) Michael Leek, OSB, Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, Celebration.
(2) Sherwood E. Wirt, Jesus, Man of Joy, Animating Illustration in Homiletics, Vol. 12, #1, January 23, 2000, "Angling Without an Angle," p. 33
(3) Robert DeGrandis, Healing through the Mass, pp. 24-25, as found on Fr. Tommy Lane's webside
(Comments to Ron at rsaunders@connriver.net )