Sunday Homily 1-22-12, 3rd Ordinary Time
Readings: Jonah 3, 1-10, Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed; Psalm 25, Teach me your ways, O Lord; 1 Corinthians 7, 29-31, The time is running out; Mark 1, 14-20, I will make you fishers of people.
Jonah: This little book of 4 chapters is a gem and tells a delightful short story. It is so good I would like to read it all, but will read chapter 1 and all of chapter 3.
Background: Jonah has been asked by Yahweh to go to Nineveh in Assyria to tell the people & leaders that they are evil and will be punished shortly by Yahweh. Trouble is, Nineveh is the enemy, like me going to Houston or Philadelphia.
So he runs away, catches a boat headed for Spain, is blamed by the sailors for causing a big storm on the sea, and is dumped overboard. The whale swallows him and for three days Jonah is constrained to reflect on what he is doing. When, after 3 days, the whale dumps him on shore, Jonah is more willing to listen. We arrive at this point and I will have all of chapter 3 read.
Author: For centuries, while people took this story as factual, Jonah was considered author of his own story. Once it was seen as a fable or allegory, the story probably has some unknown ancient as the author.
Date of composition: no one really knows, but educated guesses put it ca. 800 BCE.
Note: the story of Jonah and the story of Jesus' interaction with his future apostles are both about The Call.
A Call Story
Because the Jonah story and the story about Jesus relating to his future apostles all talk about The Call, I have a short contemporary story.
The girl’s name is Susan. Blond hair, green eyes, vivacious, a cheer leader at Skyline and at S.M.U. In fact, she was the head cheerleader at S.M.U. She was fun to be around and full of zest for life.
While Susan presented herself so positively at school, At this point in her life three horrible events had taken place.
First, the summer Susan was 10 she and her mother were at the lake on the 4th of July. They were on the boat dock when a man came up and whispered in her mother’s ear that their 18 year old son had just committed suicide back at their home. Susan watched as her mother was carried off the pier.
The suicide drove her parents to drink and eventually divorce. Susan was left to care take the house and her drunk mother while she finished grade school and high school. This was the second horrible event.
When Susan graduated with honors from high school, no one was there to clap for her or support her. She went home, raged at her mother, and told her she wished she were dead. The next morning Susan found her mother dead. Her mother was 49 when she drank herself to death. This was the third tragedy. She was just entering S.M.U.
Some years later one more tragedy struck her. Her older sister Kathy, upon whom she depended, died of cancer at the same age as their mom, 49, on the same holiday as her mom, Memorial Day.
This final event did it. Despite having kids and a career as a special ed coordinator, Susan entered the world of drug addiction. Within about a year CPS had taken her kids away and Susan went to prison.
In about a year Susan came out of the belly of the prison and two things happened. First, she heard The Call. Secondly, and interconnected with The Call she watched two parents react to the tragic death of their child. The parents inspired her and she answered The Call to come back to life. Today Susan gives talks about her life to strengthen others.
If you are like me, you think that The Call is to do something usually significant. Maybe it is, but it can be simply an invitation to come back to life or to be more fully alive.
Today the Mass is all about Call. What is yours today?
Resource, Dallas Morning News, 1-21-12, Kristie Smith, Viewpoints section, Educator Fell far but found God.
Picture 1: Offertory, Mary Ellen & Grace
Picture 2: Brooklyn with Joanie & Erin
Picture 3: Ray & Claire celebrating 41 years
Picture 4: Tom, Bill, & Ron
Picture 5: Someone has come to visit, no fear!
Picture 6: It's Sienna!