Tuesday of the 27th week in ordinary time year A
Jonah 3:1-10 Luke 10:38-42
Theme: Sincere repentance
In the 1st reading of today, we see how Jonah eventually accepted the mission of God, and travelled to Nineveh and delivered the message he was sent to the people. Ordinarily, Jonah came with a difficult message that is scary, but because the hand of God was upon him, the people accepted his message with an open heart and acted on it immediately. The repentance was sincere, and it involved all the people of Nineveh, from the greatest to the least person was involved. The sincerity of their acceptance of the message of the prophet Jonah, and immediate action is worthy of emulation, by Christians in our own time. On a day like this, a very important question to all of us is, what is stopping you from letting go the baggage’s in your life and letting God?
This is very important because we all have one thing or the other in our lives that we need to work on. The people of Nineveh got the message from the prophet Jonah and there was sincere repentance. We are all encouraged today to emulate them in our words and actions. Words alone are not enough; it must be backed with our action. The words of Jonah brought about the conversion of the people of Nineveh. In our own time, we listen to the word of God, read the scriptures, receive the sacraments and some of us also preach the word of God; why are we still finding it difficult to let go the baggage in our life and allow the word of God to guide our word and actions, just like the people of Nineveh? It is never too late for us to make that wonderful decision in our lives today and accept the hand of friendship God is extending to us.
In the gospel reading of today, in the actions of the two sisters, Mary and Martha, we see the two sides to our call to discipleship. The assertion of Jesus is not condemning the action of Martha, rather he is saying that at that point in time, Mary chose the most important thing. He is not in any way condemning the action of Martha, he is rather teaching us to learn to set our priorities right in life. Remember, it is the same Jesus who taught the people, healed the sick and then fed the five thousand. The actions of Mary and Martha are good, but Jesus simply emphasized the most important thing at that time. Jesus is encouraging us today to set our priority right and we will be richly blessed, just like the people of Nineveh in todays 1st reading. May the Lord bless his words in our hearts, in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Peace be with you.