DEFINITIVE CHOICE TO FOLLOW JESUS


First Reading:
Jon 3:1-5, 10
Second Reading: 1 Cor 7:29-31
Gospel: Mk 1:14-20

We are in the third Sunday of ordinary Time. In last Sunday Gospel we saw how the disciples of John the Baptist – Andrew and the other – became disciples of Jesus by going down to stay with Jesus. Their live-in experience with Jesus pushes Andrew to bring his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. In today’s Gospel Jesus calls four disciples, rather brothers from two families: Simon and Andrew, James and John. Although the narration in the gospel of Mark seems to suggest that these four men left everything at once at the call of a stranger prophet and followed Him, the comparative reading with the Gospel of John reveals that these four men already knew Jesus (Jn 1:35-42). For quite sometime they have gone after John the Baptist and Jesus subsequently. Now when Jesus comes to the region of Galilee to begin His public mission, these four men must have been among the first audience of Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God. These four men already deep inside their heart had some thirst for God. Besides being fishermen they go to hear John the Baptist, they go and stay with Jesus, all these suggest that they were in search of greater things.

The first preaching of Jesus is to repent and believe in the Gospel, because the Kingdom of God has arrived with His coming (Mk 1:15). Repent means not only making amends for past wrong doings but shifting of one’s focus, changing of one’s perspectives and taking a new direction to walk forward. When Jesus calls the disciple to follow Him, they leave their nets and follow him (Mk 1:18-20). Leaving their nets is a sign that they have shifted their focus from engaging in fishing job to engage in a mission of God. We cannot follow Jesus with our past perspectives. Our encounter with Jesus transforms our preconceived ideas. This we see in the life of Prophet Jonah too. At first, Jonah declines the call of God to prophecy in Nineveh. Jonah repents for this disobedience in the belly of the fish (Jon 2:3-10). His conversion results in the proclamation of the message of repentance in Nineveh. Jonah is surprised by the response of the Ninevehites to the God of Israel. This is what happens in the life of every minister of God. When one does the mission of God without any prejudice there s/he sees miraculous things happening.

The central message of today’s gospel is to repent and believe in the Gospel. This reading sets a tone for the season of lent. From today on we can start planning for the season of lent. We need to consider things which we are holding on to. To follow Jesus in the season of lent we need to leave our boats and nets. We have time to carry out necessary preparation for lent. God sees the efforts of Ninevehits and gives up the disaster that He had said he would do to them (Jon 3:10). In the same way, God likes to see our efforts to walk with Him in the season of lent.

The disciples make definite decision to become fishers of men. They start following Jesus without turning back. They had to face pitfalls and failures in their commitment to be Apostles. The great dispute that lead to the summoning of the first council of Jerusalem shows the limitation and human nature of the apostles. But they are in no way a discouragement for them to leave God given mission to them. They march forward with renewed energy. Their source of strength lies in their conviction born out of their repentance. They turned themselves away from their own perspectives and focused on Jesus. True repentance is needed to be firm in the life that begins subsequently. May we start introspecting about the nets and boats that we hold on to.     

 

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