(Third Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on January 21, 2024, at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 25:4-9; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Third Sunday 2024]
Repentance is good for you.
Repentance is healthy.
Repentance is liberating.
Repentance is the best thing you can do for yourself—as well as the best thing you can do to improve your relationships with other people when they go sour.
And to all this, we should say, “Thank God,” because the other noteworthy fact about repentance is that it’s not an option!
It’s a requirement. It’s a mandate. It’s a command that comes from Jesus Christ himself! So the fact that it’s beneficial on so many levels is an added bonus!
The importance of repentance should be obvious from today’s Gospel passage. There Jesus says, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel!” According to St. Mark, these were the very first words our Lord spoke during his earthly ministry. In a certain sense, they form the foundation of everything else he taught during the next 3 years. And his message to his listeners was clear and direct. He said, in effect, “This is what you have been waiting for; this is what the entire nation of Israel has been anticipating for centuries! Old Testament prophecies are now being fulfilled, and God is beginning to establish his kingdom among you. If you want to be a part of it, you need to repent—and you need to believe!”
Repentance obviously improves your relationship with God: that’s a given. But it also improves your relationships with other people. The simple statement, “I’m sorry” (spoken from the heart), coupled with a desire to make amends for what you’ve done, can make a big difference in healing the rift between you and the people you’ve offended.
On the other hand, failing to repent and to say you’re sorry when you’ve done something wrong can have a disastrous effect on a relationship.
It reminds me of a little story that a parishioner emailed me a while back . . .
A husband forgot his 25th wedding anniversary (which was definitely not a good idea!). His wife, as you might imagine, was extremely upset, especially since she was expecting a brand new car as an anniversary gift. (Her husband had promised her that several months earlier.)
She said to him, “Tomorrow, there had better be something sitting in our driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 2 seconds flat!”
She obviously expected a pretty fast car!
Anyway, the next day she woke up, ran outside to the driveway, and saw a small package sitting on the pavement. She immediately opened it up, and found her present—a brand new bathroom scale!
The husband’s funeral was the following Tuesday!
This extremely foolish man would certainly still be among
the living, if he had simply said, “I’m sorry.”
His wife might even have settled for a Hyundai instead of a Corvette!
On a more serious note, the following is a letter that really does show how failing to repent can have terrible psychological, emotional—as well as spiritual—consequences in our lives.
It was sent to me many years ago—along with a little prayer book—by a woman who used to be a parishioner of St. Pius. I saved the letter because it illustrates so well the importance of repentance. The letter read as follows:
Dear Fr. Ray,
It is with the deepest sorrow and regret that I have to write to you.
I attended St. Pius Parish in the 1980s, when you had just gotten there (at the time the church was struck by lightening when Fr. Besse was pastor). At that time, I made many visits to the church, in addition to coming to Mass on Sunday.
I am so ashamed to say that on one of my visits to pray, I was in the front pew on the right hand side of the altar, and I noticed a beautiful little prayer book. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I stole it, and have had it for over 15 years.
It is not just the fact that I took it, but that it belonged to someone who used it daily.
Over the years I have wanted to return it—just slip it back into the pew, and maybe the owner would somehow find it.
Everywhere I have moved, it went with me, along with my own prayer cards.
I started picking it up every once in a while to pray from it—but every time I tried, I couldn’t. . . . Guilt about this book has lasted all this time. . . .
My greatest sadness is that the prayers from this book were not said for over 15 years—for someone’s family, their church, their nation, the world. I don’t know how to get it back to its owner. Perhaps showing the book at all Masses might help. I only hope that the person who owns this book can forgive me.
May God forgive me, a poor sinner, and have mercy on me.
PS: I hope and pray it doesn’t belong to Monsignor Struck or Sister Dorothy. They have both helped me—and probably prayed for me from that book. Again, I am so very sorry.
We can deny our sin; we can pretend it doesn’t exist; we
can sweep it under the rug (so to speak)—but in spite of all these efforts, it
will always affect us in negative
ways!
The woman who wrote this letter to me had been guilt-ridden and without peace for 15 years because of a sin she committed and then tried to ignore. But it didn’t have to be that way! All she needed to do 15 years earlier was repent, go to Confession, and then make a sincere effort to return the prayer book to its owner. It was that simple!
On that note, it was fitting that today’s first reading was taken from the book of the prophet Jonah. The verses we heard this morning occur in the middle of the book. Here the Lord commands Jonah to go to the city Nineveh and preach a message of repentance. And Jonah goes—which he did NOT do at the beginning of the book when God called him the first time! In fact, after the initial call he received, Jonah got on the very first ship that he could find that was headed in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION, away from Nineveh!
Why, you ask?
Because Jonah hated the Ninevites, that’s why! Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, which, at the time, was Israel’s arch-enemy. Jonah knew the Lord was not only just; he knew the Lord was also forgiving and merciful. And he had a sneaking suspicion that if he went to the Ninevites and told them to repent—and they actually did repent—then God would not allow their city to be destroyed.
But Jonah wanted the place destroyed! He wanted to see the city of Nineveh go up in flames! He wanted to see it “fry” like Sodom and Gomorrah had many years earlier!
So he ran away (actually, he sailed away—on a ship that was headed west toward Tarshish).
God said, “Not so fast, Jonah!” and he threw the ship into a terrible storm. Jonah was tossed overboard in the middle of it and swallowed by a gigantic fish (which is sometimes referred to as a whale).
After spending 3 days and 3 nights inside this whale’s belly, God commanded the creature to spew Jonah up onto the shore—which is where today’s first reading picks up the story.
The Lord said, “Ok Jonah, let’s try this one more time. Go to the people of Nineveh and tell them that unless they repent within 40 days their entire city will be destroyed.”
Now, to his credit, Jonah did learn his lesson. He learned that it was probably not a good idea to defy God a second time! So, as we heard a few moments ago, he went to Nineveh—albeit begrudgingly—and he delivered the message the Lord told him to deliver.
And, almost immediately, the whole place repented—which, of course, was precisely what Jonah did NOT want to happen!
At that point, Jonah had a choice to make. He could either repent of his hatred, forgive his enemies and find some peace, or he could persist in his hatred and unforgiveness and be miserable. Unfortunately, Jonah ended up choosing the latter.
He whined; he pouted; he sulked; he told God that he had a “right” to be angry (I’m not sure where that right came from, but Jonah insisted that he had it).
It got so bad that he eventually prayed for death! He said, “I can’t deal with this anymore, Lord, so please take my life.”
It’s ironic, isn’t it?—the Ninevites were the pagans, yet they repented and found peace; Jonah was a believer, an Israelite—one of God’s chosen people—but he refused to repent, and consequently had no peace.
I’ll end my homily this morning as I began it:
Repentance is good for you.
Repentance is healthy.
Repentance is liberating.
Repentance is the best thing you can do for yourself—as well as the best thing you can do to improve your relationships with other people when they go sour.
And that’s why the sacrament of Confession is such a great blessing!
When was the last time you went?
