3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

In 722 B.C. Assyrians conquered Israel and deported her people to Assyria as captives. The flourishing capital of the Assyrian empire was Nineveh then. So it is but just to say Nineveh was the historical enemy of Israel and Judah. Now in the Book of Jonah, God called Jonah to proclaim judgment to Nineveh. But he resisted and attempted to flee. He went to Joppa and boarded a ship bound for Tarshish. God called up a great storm at sea, and the ship's crew casted Jonah overboard in an attempt to appease God. A great sea creature sent by God, swallowed Jonah. For three days and three nights Jonah languished inside the fish's belly. Then the fish vomited out Jonah safely on dry land. After his rescue, Jonah obeyed the call to prophesy against Nineveh, and they repented.

This story of Jonah reminds us that no matter what our emotion is against one another, it should not prevail over the love that we have for God. Our negative emotions suppose to make us realize how much we need to focus on God’s love for us so that we can truly make sense of our human limitations rather than to think of retaliation. We proceed with the process of finding our life’s meaning in the eyes of God, looking at people we do not like from the humble perspective that we both are in need of God’s love. We then are called to be God’s sign of love for those who hate us or whom we suppose to hate.
In our Gospel, Mark 1:14-20, it says that after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." Here again we are being reminded that though John a relative of Jesus was imprisoned even if he was innocent, this did not give Jesus the occasion to hate and condemn those who imprisoned John. Jesus instead began to preach about the love of God and even called some disciples to teach them how to allow God’s love flow through them and set aside their ill feelings. Jesus taught his disciples to look at sinners as souls to be saved and not people to be condemned.
This too is our mission as a Christian. Though sometimes it is very difficult for us to love the person who has done evil things to us, we have to get rooted in God’s love and preach the love of God against his/her hatred for us. Our mission does not depend on our emotions but on God-given vocation –to be Christ for others.