Ordinary Sunday III
21 January 2024, Year B
Jon 3:1-5.10
1 Cor7:29-31
Mk 1:14-20
“What time is it?” “Sorry, I don’t have time now.” “Great: we have plenty of time!” We are familiar with such phrases. Today’s readings, too, speak of time. According to Jesus, “the time is fulfilled.” According to St Paul, “the appointed time has grown very short”. So, what is this time which is at the same time ‘full’ and ‘short’?
If we remember that we count the years from the date of Jesus’ birth, it is clear that Jesus and time are closely connected. Not only is the present time measured by reference to the past event of Christ’s coming in the flesh; but the present time is qualified by Jesus’ presence. His presence inhabits and transforms our present time; it opens each moment of our lifetime to God’s eternity.
Jesus “passing along by the Sea of Galilee”, on his way back from His baptism by John, begins to preach the Gospel of God. His first words are about time: “The time is fulfilled”. A long process of preparation has now reached maturity. A definite time is at hand. Things are ripe. Now has come the long-expected season when God’s grace is fully at work. Today is the time of grace. Jesus’ words open a new era. He declares the gift of grace which God is bestowing on His people. Light shines in the darkness. Hope is offered. It is now time: “the Kingdom is at hand”. Let us “repent and believe in the gospel”. First comes repentance. A Friend is inviting us; we remember that we have not always been faithful to Him; but He offers forgiveness, and He provides a new start. Up to us to believe, to embrace His grace, and to live accordingly. Christian life is life in the fullness of time, when God’s mercy is revealed, when we are all given an opportunity to rise from sin to grace and from death to life.
This time of “fullness” is also, according to St Paul, a “short” time. Does it mean that God’s grace is like these offers which turn up on our screens with strict deadlines: cheap travel tickets on offer till tomorrow midnight, for instance? Could not we think, rather, that God’s mercy is infinite, that genuine conversion can wait a little, that it will never be too late, and that we have plenty of time to commit more seriously to our Christian faith?
No, saint Paul says, for the time of grace is short. After the time of grace will come the time of judgment. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown”. God’s mercy has no limits. But we are given a limited time to welcome it: the time of our life; how do we know it will be long? No, the time of grace is short. It is now. It is the present time. This is the only real time. Our future may exist in our imagination; only the present time is – albeit in the fragility of an ever-changing flow of instants. It is precisely in this short time which is given us now that Christ is present, that His grace is offered, that His calling resonates: “Follow me”.
The great decisions of our life – our conversion, our vocation – cannot wait. The little conversions of our daily way of life must not be delayed either. The fullness of grace is given precisely within the limits of our short time. We respond to God’s grace, and we obey Christ’s voice calling us right now. It is now that we yield to His voice calling us through the words of the Gospel and in the silence of our conscience. Now, mercy open the doors of life; now God’s grace makes possible what we cannot do on our own; now is the time of salvation; now, Love is inviting us to an eternal embrace. With the grace of God, we are given now to take one new step towards the Father as we follow Christ without delay, fully, peacefully, joyfully. “Immediately they left their nets and followed Him”.