REPENT!

Today’s readings have a very familiar theme: a call to repentance before it’s too late.

The time is short:

“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” says Jonah (Jonah 3:1-5,10);

“The kingdom of God is at hand,” says the Lord (Mark 1:14-20);

“For the world in its present form is passing away,” says St. Paul (1 Corinthians 7:29-31).

Indeed, we might find ourselves standing before the Lord at any time.

Miserere mei, Domine.

Therefore, if we have any areas of sinfulness to which we have stubbornly clung, now is the time to repent, asking the Lord to give us the grace we need to put these sins behind us.

But what if we are not aware of major sins in our lives? What does this call to repentance mean to us?

Today’s readings give us at least three answers – three ways of continuing and deepening our response to God’s call to repentance: detachment, belief, and discipleship.

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The theme of detachment from the world is expressed most poetically in today’s second reading:

I tell you, brothers and sisters,
the time is running out.
From now on,
let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.

Even though we may not be grievous sinners, it is very possible that we are emotionally and otherwise over-invested in the things of this world: that our hearts are not really and fully set on the things of heaven.

God calls us to repent, to set our hearts completely on him, and to live in this world without being attached to any of the things of this world.

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The theme of belief is tied to the call to repentance in today’s Gospel as closely as anything can be:

Repent, and believe in the gospel, says the Lord.

It is not enough to refrain from evil and to be detached from the things of this world: we must believe – believe in the Lord Jesus and believe his Gospel, his Good News.

The call to repentance is a call to believe more deeply and more fully. How do we do this? By learning more – through Scriptures, the teaching of the Church, and the writings of the Saints – and by opening ourselves to the Lord more and more through prayer and the Sacraments, for none of this is something we do ourselves: all of this is and must be the work of grace.

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The theme of discipleship immediately follows the call to repentance in today’s Gospel. In the very next verse, our Lord sees Simon and Andrew and in the verse after that he calls them to discipleship:

Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.

It is not enough simply to believe: we must follow – our faith must be manifested in our lives, not just inside our skulls.

The call to repentance is ultimately a call to discipleship: not just to avoid evil, but to do good; not just to detach from the things of this world, but to make manifest in this world the things of heaven; not just to know and believe the faith, but to proclaim it – in word and in action.

Repent.

Detach.

Believe.

Follow.