May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
There is urgency in the message. There is urgency in the call of the
Lord. Jonah and Paul proclaim that the
time of transformation is at hand. “Nineveh
will be destroyed.” “The world as we
know it is passing away.” There is
urgency in the message. There is urgency
in the call of the Lord. Everything else
must wait. Today is the day of
salvation. Today is the day of the
visitation of our God.
The people of Nineveh heard the voice of a prophet. The people of Corinth heard the voice of an
apostle. The fishermen, Simon and
Andrew, James and John, heard the voice of the Son of God. They heard the announcement of the time of
fulfillment. They heard the proclamation
of the kingdom of God. They heard the call
to repentance and the call to believe in the gospel. And then, the Lord Jesus called them to
follow him. There is urgency in the
message. There is urgency in the call of
the Lord. Today is the day of
salvation. Today is the day of the
visitation of our God.
Today is the day to respond.
The people of Nineveh heard the preaching of Jonah and they proclaimed a
time of repentance. They turned away
from their sins, they turned away from their idols, and they turned toward the
Living God. They proclaimed a day of
repentance and they received the day of salvation. The fishermen heard the preaching of the
Kingdom and the call to follow Jesus, and the fishermen immediately left their
nets to follow the Shepherd. There is
urgency in their response. There is
urgency in the response to the call of the Lord. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of the visitation of our
God.
The people of Nineveh, the people of Corinth and the
fishermen on the Sea of Galilee heard the urgency of the message. They heard the urgency in the call of the
Lord. They heard the voice that they
could not ignore and they heard invitation that they would not reject. There was urgency in the message and there
was urgency in the response. It was the
day of salvation and the day of the visitation of our God.
There is urgency in the message for us too, dear brothers and
sisters. There is urgency in the call of
the Lord. Like the people of Nineveh, we
are invited to turn away from our sins and from the idols of the world that
invite our worship. We are invited to
turn toward the Lord. Like the people of
Corinth, we are invited to live in this world mindful that our true homeland is
in the next. And like the fishermen of
Galilee, we are invited to leave our nets and walk with the Lord Jesus, for
today is the day of salvation. Today, in
this Eucharist, is the day of the visitation of our God. Amen.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes
Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
