Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
January 22, 2006


On a scale of 1-10, how alive are you?

A pastor once began his homily by announcing, “Everyone in this parish is going to die!” The people shuddered, except for one man in the back who started chuckling. The pastor then repeated, “Everyone in this parish is going to die!” Again the congregation shuddered, but the same man chuckled even louder. The pastor said it a third time and once more the man laughed. Frustrated, the pastor asked the man why he was laughing. “Father,” he said, “I’m not from this parish.” (Story from a homily by Fr. Phil Bloom)

I think that most of my life, I have been the man laughing in the back of church. Though I know I am getting older, though I know that I won’t live forever, I presume that there will always be a tomorrow for me. I presume that morning will dawn for me, and that I’ll have another chance to get it right. “Father, I am not from this parish,” is how I have lived most of my days.

So it is not without a little trepidation that I hear today’s readings. From Paul’s direct bow shot: “Brothers and Sisters, time is running out” to the inaugural address of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel: “Now is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news,” the message is the same. Everyone in this parish is going to die. But, in an interesting twist on the apocalyptic pronouncements, rather than focus in on the dying part, Jesus would have us looking at the LIVING part of life.

Instead of continuing with the usual gloom and doom, fire and brimstone approach that I am accustomed to hearing from apocalyptic literature, Jesus moves directly from ‘repent and believe’ to calling the first disciples. And note that Jesus called his first disciples right from the ordinary things they were doing in their ordinary days. And told them: TODAY! NOW! THIS TIME! THIS PLACE! This is the moment to be fishers of men. This is the time when you can experience the kingdom of God. Act now and quickly, not because you are going to die (though you are) but because when you act, when you leave Father and mother and livelihood behind to follow and serve, you will experience the time of fulfillment.

My family celebrated my mom’s 81st birthday tonight. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I looked around the room and realized how much I love my family and how important they are. Right there, in the middle of our dinner conversations, was an experience of the kingdom. Or when you realize that instead of yelling at your dorm neighbor who was playing his music too loud, you could have been more subtle and said: “Your stereo sounds great in my room.” In that moment of repentance, when you ask him to forgive the manner of your correction – God is right there. Each moment you spend studying and helping a classmate, you are being the good news to them. All of those ordinary tasks bring you a foretaste of the kingdom, if you have eyes to see and a heart to listen.

In the SHAMELESS PLUG portion of my homily… The first talk of our upcoming College retreat called “Awakenings” is all about this truth. It is entitled “Fully Human, Fully Awake.” And every time I hear students sharing about their efforts to live FULLY AWAKE, to live into the life that is uniquely their own, I bring out that 1-10 scale of aliveness and see how I am doing. And even if my review of my week looks like I spent a day resting because I was exhausted from the day before, or was in bed sick with the flu, or was out in the workplace, as long as I bring to my living an intentional presence to the moment, then “the time of fulfillment is at hand.”

Everyone in this parish is going to die. That is a fact. However, I still find myself laughing in the back of church, not because “I am from another parish”, but because I know the secret of time. Each moment, each day, each hour IS already a living the kingdom kind of moment, that will one day explode into the fullness of that life in eternity. Till then, the kingdom of God IS at hand. Here in this Eucharist we receive, here in the lives we break open and share with one another, here in the praise and glory we give to God by our presence – we live already in the eternal life Jesus gives us.