Click here to read the Sunday readings from the USCCB website.

Before I became a priest, when I lived in West Des Moines, I worked for a Computer Consulting Company as a software developer.  

As a consulting firm, we worked with many different companies, private and government, across many different industries, from seed corn to heart surgery, from cardboard production to economic development, and everywhere in between.  

My biggest project was building a solution for a client whose business had the responsibility of doing huge maintenance projects with hundreds and hundreds of contractors across the United States, for instance changing every light bulb in every Walmart, and then allowing Walmart to see that the work was done, and then paying all those contractors, all with our custom created software.

Our customers came to us with a problem, they knew they needed something software related to get from point A to point B, but often did not exactly know what.  

Sometimes they had some existing software or process that was outdated, other times they had no software at all, were just doing things manually and knew they could do a better job, more efficiently, in order to run their business better and ultimately to be more profitable.

It was my job to meet with the clients, the primary stakeholders if you will, and to talk to them about their business.  It was always interesting to hear them tell me what they wanted, it was always a crap shoot really, to see whether they could clearly articulate what they needed.  They’d often get lost in the details.

Usually what they thought they needed didn’t match they actually needed, and it took some time to figure that out, to get to the bottom of it, but what I found was that, perhaps the biggest thing that helped, was to know what they wanted at the end of everything.

Sure, they wanted software to make them more efficient and more profitable, but at the end of the day, what they really needed was some sort of a report, some way to see what was going on in their business.  That was the end goal.

So we could go on for hours and hours about how to get there, but what was really important was the end. 

And I thought of that when I began thinking about today’s readings, what will be important when we reach the end?

Because we have to know, someone once said, there are only two things really certain in life, death and taxes.  I was curious who that someone was, so I looked it up, and it was Benjamin Franklin when he was reflecting near the end of his life.  He said:

“Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” He concluded with a note about his own mortality to his friend: “My health continues much as it has been for some time, except that I grow thinner and weaker so that I cannot expect to hold out much longer.”

So do we get lost in the details, like the taxes, or do we live our lives with this end in mind?  We know that we will eventually die, we don’t know when or how, but we know we will, and “the time is running out.”

Paul said that in our second reading,
“I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.”

Does this mean give up on everything?  Absolutely not, but it does mean we have to prioritize things based on the end goal.

The people in Nineveh had their priorities all wrong.  They were not worshipping God, they had abandoned their religion, they were a great enemy of Israel and had done many evil things.

But at the preaching of Jonah, who really didn’t want to preach to his enemies, the Ninevites repented when they realized their end was near, that they were about to die.  They realized that they had done wrong, they changed their evil ways, and when they repented, God relented of the destruction He promised.

Priorities. We set our priorities based on the end. The priorities of the first Apostles were not perfect either.

In the Gospel, these guys had met Jesus before this.  This wasn’t a complete “out of the blue” request as it might seem.  Simon and Andrew, James and John, they had been disciples of John the Baptist.  John had pointed Jesus out, behold the lamb of God, remember from last week, so they knew who Jesus was.

At the same time, even though they were starting to suspect Jesus was a really big deal, like the Messiah, they went back to their jobs, they went back to their fishing boats and nets.

But once John the Baptist got arrested, they probably had a rude awakening themselves. As John’s disciples, they were no longer safe, and at any point could be arrested and thrown into prison themselves.  They knew they could have been killed, or worse!

So with that on their mind, it probably didn’t take a lot of convincing when Jesus called them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.

Looking at the end helped them to get their priorities straight as well.  They realized they could die at any time, so why not try to help others meet the Messiah before they met their end?

Where are our priorities?  In light of our own eventual end, where might we need to make some changes?

First, we have to be converted ourselves.  We can’t help others breath if we can’t breath ourselves, that’s why the airline steward says, in case of an emergency, secure your own mask before helping your children or others.

To be converted is to repent of our sins.  Sometimes we think of conversion as a 180 degree change.  Yes, sometimes it is, but more than likely, it is a daily small change, just one degree at a time.  Think Course corrections, not U-Turns.

Every day we should reflect on if we are living as the best version of ourselves and how we could do better.  This is a conversion, a small, but necessary conversion, a course correction.

Second, we have to help others to know of Jesus, we are also called to be fishers of men.  Listen, we believe in eternal life, we believe Jesus is the way, really the only way to eternal life.  

If we love someone who doesn’t yet know Jesus, or who doesn’t believe that Jesus came to save us from our sins through His life, death and resurrection, how could we not tell them?

Even if we don’t love them, Jonah didn’t love the Ninevites, we still have a responsibility. 

We have a responsibility because we know Jesus Christ, we know what living in a relationship with Him and the Catholic Church does for us.  And it is our responsibility to help others to encounter Him.

Because we know the end.  We are aware of what is coming, we can’t afford to get lost or caught up in all the details and minuta along the way.  That is very easy to do, to get our priorities mixed up.

Don’t forget about the end. Keep your priorities in check.  Follow Jesus and be converted every day. And as you do, bring your brothers and sisters to Christ.