RUNNING AWAY?

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mk 1:14-20

Jonah is one intriguing character in the Old Testament: he was a runaway prophet. When God ordered Jonah to warn the Ninevites that God would destroy them unless they repent, Jonah refused to obey God. Aware that God was merciful, Jonah believed that the Ninevites would not be destroyed anyway and he would appear more like a clown than a prophet in the end. Thus, Jonah tried running away from God. He embarked on a ship that was heading for the modern-day Spain.

Jonah tried running away, but did not succeed. He was in for a wet surprise. While sailing the seas, there came a violent storm that threatened to break up the ship where Jonah laid soundly sleeping while his shipmates frantically praying. The captain woke the culprit and commanded him to pray to his God. But how can Jonah pray to God when it was God he was running away from? Thus, he had no choice but to confess that he was the cause of their calamity and suggested that they throw him overboard. At first, his shipmates were reluctant but, when the storm grew more violent, they tossed Jonah overboard anyway. When the sea received Jonah, it quieted down and gave his former shipmates a peaceful voyage.

Jonah, who was running away from God, was snatched away by a whale. The whale brought him to a three-day retreat. The problem was that the retreat house was the belly of the whale that snatched him away.

In his three-day renewal course, Jonah had time to repent. Inside the belly of the whale, he could go nowhere but into the depths of his heart and could face nothing but what God asked of him. Jonah prayed, repented, and promised to obey God. There and then, his retreat was over and the whale vomited him on dry land. His port of arrival was the city of Nineveh itself.

The Word of God came to Jonah a second time: “Up! Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.” Thus, Jonah went forth and announced to the Ninevites the impending catastrophe that would befall them unless they repent from their sins. Everybody in Nineveh, including the king, heeded Jonah’s call and renounced their wicked ways. As Jonah knew it from the start, the mercy of God spared the Ninevites.

The Ninevites repented. God withhold His wrath. Everyone was overjoyed. All except one. While the people were rejoicing, Jonah was sulking. He left the city to sit under the sun, hoping he would die because he looked like a buffoon after his all-to-be-wiped-out speeches were overruled by God’s all-embracing mercy. There upon, God allowed a vine to grow to shade His sulking prophet. But while Jonah was starting to feel better, God caused the vine to wither. Jonah felt sorry for the vine. Finally, God delivered the punch line: “…the LORD said, ‘You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?’” (Jon 4:10-11)

How many among us are as obsessed as Jonah was with being right and wanting to see the wicked perish to be proven right? The Lord Jesus teaches us in the Gospel today the lesson that Jonah had to learn by being made to look foolish: the point of prophecy is not accuracy but repentance. And when we ourselves are made to look foolish because some impending catastrophe we warned people about on account of their evil deeds did not happen, we must remember that repentance is more important than foolishness. It is always good when the give-them-hell prophet is proven wrong.

The good news today is that no one is predestined to a catastrophic end. Not even the hardened criminal is doomed to embrace disaster. By repenting from our sins, we can change our lives. Repentance is good news because it means that nothing is settled, that nothing is sealed, that there is always hope even for the hopeless offender, that punishment planned beforehand can be cancelled, that things can change for the better, that God can begin again, and that we can begin again with God too. That is good news; and that is the news of Jesus. That is why the Kingdom of God, as Jesus announces today, is already in our midst.

The Gospel today concludes with Jesus gathering men who are to be His close associates. He needs as many people as possible to spread His breaking good news. Should you run away?