Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings

• First Reading Jonah 3:1-5, 10
• Responsorial Psalm Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
• Second Reading 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
• Gospel Mark 1:14-20

Open the Mass Readings on USCCB.org →

Step Into the Story

Nineveh, on the Tigris, was capital of Assyria, the empire that destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. and deported its people. Assyrian kings decorated their palaces with reliefs of flayed prisoners. When God sends Jonah there, Jonah sails the other way. Sent a second time, he preaches one sentence, and the whole city, king included, puts on sackcloth. Jonah is furious. In Galilee, likely around 28 A.D., Herod Antipas has just arrested John the Baptist.

1. 722 B.C.Assyria destroys Israel
2. 4 B.C.Antipas rules Galilee
3. c. 20 A.D.Antipas founds Tiberias
4. c. 28 A.D.Antipas arrests John
5. This week’s scene: c. 28 A.D.Jesus calls the fishermen

Walk the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake about thirteen miles long, set in a bowl of hills nearly 700 feet below the sea. Hear the water slap against the boats drawn up on the shingle. Smell fish and wet nets. This is a working lake: down the shore at Magdala, whose Greek name, Taricheae, means fish salting, the catch is packed for market.

Watch two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the shallows. Farther on, James and John sit in their father Zebedee’s boat with the hired men, mending nets. A man from Nazareth is walking along the beach toward them. Stand at the water’s edge with your sandals wet, and wait for Him to call.

Encounter the Lord

Stand on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Simon and Andrew are casting their nets, as they do every day. A man walks by and says, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Mark says they left their nets at once.

Repentance is not only feeling sorry. It is turning your whole life toward God. The Ninevites did it with fasting and sackcloth. The fishermen did it by walking away from their boats. Paul reminds us why it is urgent: the world as we know it is passing away. Jesus is not asking you to despise your work or your family, but to let Him come first, and to trust that following Him is the way to the happiness you are looking for.

This week, name one attachment that slows you down in following Christ. Make a concrete act of letting go, and if it has been a while, go to Confession.

Know Your Faith

The Call to Conversion

Jesus calls to conversion as an essential part of proclaiming the kingdom: “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (CCC 1427). Baptism is the principal place of the first conversion.

Ongoing Conversion

Christ’s call to conversion continues in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church (CCC 1428). Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return to God with all our heart (CCC 1431).

God Reveals His Plan

In His goodness God revealed Himself and made known the mystery of His will, so that we might have access to the Father through Christ and share in the divine nature (CCC 51). He reveals Himself gradually, by deeds and words (CCC 53).

Conversion and Society

Conversion of heart is necessary for changing society. Institutions cannot be made just without inner conversion, and charity is the greatest social commandment (CCC 1886-1889).