3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Opportunities may arise each day that may not come our way again. In order to take advantage of them, one must seize the day (“Carpe diem!” as it is said in Latin). Sad to say, many times people just fail to respond, and lose out on an opportunity. God places an array of opportunities before his people; opportunities to choose life. God not only gave us life, he redeemed our lives and showed us the path to everlasting life through the ministry and sacrifice of his Son, Jesus.

Our Scripture Readings today give us examples of people who seized the moment in choosing the path of life. Our First Reading (Jonah 3:1-5, 10) clearly shows the opportunity that God presented before the Ninevites through the prophet Jonah. Jonah declared that the city of Nineveh and all of its inhabitants would be destroyed at the end of forty days unless they repented of their sinfulness. The people of Nineveh seized the moment. The king and all of his subjects immediately repented of their sins and were spared. The story makes it clear that there would be no second chance. Only an immediate response would put them on the path of life – and they responded.

The call of the Apostles to follow Jesus was another blessed opportunity from God. We hear in the Gospel (Mark 1:14-20) how Jesus laid this opportunity before Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Despite any apprehension they might have felt due to family or work, they seized the moment. They abandoned their former way of life and followed Jesus. There was little time to think about it. Their immediate response placed them in the path of life, alongside the Lord.

Each of us was given new life in Christ in the Sacrament of Baptism. We were “born again” as well as “born from above” (the original Greek word used in John’s Gospel has both meanings) in Baptism. This is critically important, for Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:5 – “Amen, Amen I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” And that is what happens in Baptism – we are born of water and Spirit. Since then, God has placed, and continues to place, opportunities before us to choose the path of life again and again. We are called to seize the moment; to use today to grow in faith. Today is the day to love your spouse in the same way that Christ does; to form your children in faith; to visit a sick friend or someone who is grieving. These are the opportunities in daily life through which God calls us to live out our faith. A prompt response to his call can help keep us on the path of life and bring joy to ourselves and to others. May we seize every opportunity to repent of our sins, every opportunity to follow Christ as we should, and every opportunity to choose the path of everlasting life.