Jonah 3:1-5, 10 I Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14 -20

World War I produced one of the most memorable images in American history with the United States Army recruiting poster depicting Uncle Sam pointing an accusing finger at the viewer urging young men to enlist in the war effort. It was painted by James Montgomery Flagg. The image was later adapted by the U.S. Army with the new unforgettable call to action: I WANT YOU …

I want you is the basis of the readings from last Sunday and again today. Hey Jonah, “Set out for Nineveh and tell the people to fast and pray or their city will be destroyed …” Hey Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations, I appointed you …” Hey Francis, I want you to leave your wealthy and comfortable life in Assisi … Hey Teresa, you need to leave that fancy convent and help the poor ... Hey, Patrick I want you to be a bishop and go back to Ireland and evangelize them crazy Irish … Hey Michael, I want you to stop fooling around and playing in the mud for I want you to be a priest … Hey Sean, yes you, I want you to be a priest too … Hey, Billy I want you to go to New Orleans … I know it’s 5000 miles away … Hey, Drew, Sam, Josh, Dominic, Michael, Leander, Andrew, Paul, Jeffrey, Dan, yes you, I want you to be a priest too … Hey, Tom, Mary, Pauline, Sophia, Melanie, Tony, Patrick, yes you, I want you to be more involved in the ministry of the Church … I want you on the Pastoral Council, the Finance Committee, working with the poor, the Altar Society, the School Board … And before I go any further the excuses are clocking up like a bill.

Jonah tried to run away, Jeremiah complained saying he could not speak and he was too young … Excuses! Some of the baptized don’t even come to Sunday Mass with the excuse: “Well it’s the only day I can sleep in … I go shopping that day …” Make an effort, not an excuse. Be stronger than your excuses. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means availability, a willing heart, and helping hands. The adventure of discipleship! St. Catherine of Siena said: “Be who God meant you to be and set the world on fire.”

Psychologist Abraham Maslow has an interesting response to the question of why so few people leave all to follow a dream, or pursue a noble cause.  He says they are afraid to become what they are capable of being ...  They thrill at the idea and possibility but they also shudder at it. 

Scott Neeson was a Hollywood big shot and the president of 20^th Century Fox back in 2003.  He led a glamorous life - lived in a five bedroom home worth millions of dollars, drove Porsche’s and Ferrari’s and had a big boat.  He was a man of means and luxuries who said: “I sort of enjoyed it, but I wasn’t particularly happy.” He took a backpacking trip to Cambodia that year, and what he saw changed the course of his very comfortable and luxurious life.  He saw poverty like he had never seen before.  He saw children picking food out of the trash just to survive.  Every day he walked through the slums that surround a landfill outside the capital and largest city of Cambodia.  Thousands live there amid the filth and stench of the landfill.  So, Scott established programs to help feed and educate the children on a massive scale.  One of his friends back in Hollywood thought that he wouldn’t last more than a few months.  The friend said: “I thought he was having a midlife crisis.  But Scott never returned to 20^th Century Fox.”  You see God has greater plans for us than we have for ourselves.  What I am is God’s gift to me.  What I become is my gift back to God.

Sometimes I imagine the story of Jonah as our story too because there is a tendency to try and hide from God because God tends to ask us to leave behind the comfortable nets of everyday life and enter the “Nineveh” of our lives that needs change so as to truly embrace the ways of God.  So, we hide but deep down our hearts are restless … until they rest in God!  I often think that we are like the prodigal son too who selfishly leaves home, not to mission and be God’s minister, but to recklessly go through life using up the talents given him by the father.  It’s not until the prodigal son is at the bottom of the ladder that his mind and eyes are opened to the possibilities that he comes home to the Father.   

On occasion I think of my own life as a Jonah and Whale Story, except that I was coughed out of the belly of an aircraft at New Orleans International Airport.  You see God has greater plans for us than we have for ourselves.  What I am is God’s gift to me.  What I become is my gift back to God.

Jesus says to us: “This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the Gospel.”  In about three weeks we will hear the priest and deacon call out on Ash Wednesday: Repent and believe in the Gospel. 

The call of Jesus is directed to sinners in the first place, indeed to everyone, even the good people.  Funnily enough it’s the people who humbly admit and confess their despair and sinfulness that are given entry into heaven - tax collectors and prostitutes, we are told … Many people today don’t recognize their sinfulness and others think they are beyond redemption. To be honest, I think most of us crucify ourselves between two thieves: the sins of the past and fear of the future.  That said, we should find ourselves all the more ready to be “fishers of men” calling out to others to listen to that inner voice crying out to be nourished by the Body of Christ.

The Gospel is in between two phases, “Come and See” and “Go and Tell.”

You see God has greater plans for us than we have for ourselves.  What I am is God’s gift to me.  What I become is my gift back to God.