THE FIRST READING recounts the mission Jonah received from the Lord: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So the prophet went and began to announce, “Forty days from now Nineveh will be overthrown!” The Ninevites heeded Jonah’s words and “proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth.” When God saw “their repentance from their evil ways, he was moved with compassion and relented.” The catastrophe Nineveh was threatened with ultimately did not occur (cf. Jonah 3:1-5, 10).
Every conversion requires a free response: the person most interested in changing is oneself. But it is not simply a matter of modifying certain external behaviors; it is something much deeper, and involves letting God become the center of our life, and not the world’s models. “It is a decisive change of view and attitude. In fact, sin—above all the sin of worldliness which is like air, it permeates everything—brought about a mentality that tends toward the affirmation of oneself against others and against God.”[1] The inhabitants of Nineveh left behind their old securities, the wickedness that had reached even the presence of the Lord (cf. Jonah 1:2), and embraced sacrifice and penance to gain divine favor, which meant gaining their own happiness.
The message God addressed to the Ninevites invited them to distance themselves from worldly things and recognize that only what comes from Him can make them happy. Accepting this call implies, above all, trusting in his word, allowing ourselves to be healed by God, and opening ourselves to his companionship. Then He acts through our good intentions and strengthens our efforts to follow Him. “For a child of God,” Saint Josemaría said, “each day should be an opportunity for renewal, knowing for sure that with the help of grace we will reach the end of the road, which is Love. That is why if you begin and begin again, you are doing well. If you have a will to win, if you struggle, then, with God’s help, you will conquer! There will be no difficulty you cannot overcome!”[2]
THE GOSPEL also tells us of Jesus’ invitation to undertake a new life. As soon as He learned that John had been arrested, our Lord went to Galilee to preach: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Saint Mark goes on to recount the calling of the first disciples: “And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.’” (Mk 1:14-18).
Christ is the “great light” (Is 9:1) that brought light to the inhabitants of Galilee and the apostles. He is the foundation of the disciples’ conversion and vocation. Those men completely changed their lives simply because Jesus had called them. Sometimes it could seem impossible “to abandon the path of sin because we center our commitment to conversion only on ourselves and on our strength, and not on Christ and his Spirit . . . Our adherence to the Lord cannot be reduced to a personal effort. Instead, it must express itself in a trusting opening of the heart and mind in order to welcome the Good News of Jesus.”[3]
The first disciples recognized in Jesus the great light that illuminated their lives. That encounter transformed the direction of their future. That is why, “at once they left their nets and followed him” (Mt 4:22). What had been an essential part of their daily lives—fishing—was now integrated into and subordinated to the plans our Lord entrusted to them. Certainly, Jesus does not ask everyone to leave behind their nets in that way. However, every vocation “is a phenomenon that bestows a sense of mission and ennobles and enriches our existence. Jesus enters the soul with an act of authority, into yours and mine: that is the call.”[4]
OPENING our heart and responding to God’s call to conversion is the first step on the path to holiness. The apostles decided to follow Jesus, but they still had much to change in their lives. As Saint Josemaría wrote: “Conversion is a matter of an instant; sanctification is the work of a lifetime. The divine seed of charity, which God has sown in our souls, wants to grow, to express itself in action, to yield results which continually coincide with what God wants. Therefore, we must be ready to begin again, to find again—in new situations—the light and the stimulus of our first conversion.”[5]
Jesus doesn’t demand that we lead a perfect life. He wants us to stay close to Him: that is the source of our effectiveness, not the absence of weaknesses. Therefore, what matters is not that we never fall, but that we are eager to begin again at every moment and to always seek union with our Lord. By acknowledging our own fragility, we come to know ourselves better, and also how God works. He always comes to meet us anew, and does so with special tenderness when we discover and accept our shortcomings. The memory of our first calling, when we allowed Jesus to become the center of our lives, can help us when our mistakes are perhaps more evident and fill us with confusion.
“Remember your Galilee and return to your Galilee. It is the ‘place’ where you met Jesus in person—where He ceased to be a historical figure like any other and became the most important person in your life. He is not a distant God, but the God who is near, who knows you better than anyone and loves you more than anyone.”[6] Perhaps Peter, when he wept for having denied Jesus three times, recalled so many moments shared with Him: the day of his calling, their intimate conversations, the joy of witnessing the miracles… And perhaps that is what spurred him to not fall into despair and reminded him of something we too have experienced: that we frequently need to embrace divine mercy. In times of difficulty, the Virgin Mary will help us to seek her Son’s loving look again and remember that God is always calling us.
[1] Francis, Angelus, 24 January 2021.
[2] Saint Josemaría, The Forge, no. 751.
[3] Francis, Angelus, 26 January 2020.
[4] Saint Josemaría, Letter 3, no. 9.
[5] Saint Josemaría, Christ Is Passing By, no. 58.
[6] Francis, Homily, 8 April 2023.