3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading: Mark 1: 14 -20

14 After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee . There he pro­claimed the Good News from God.

15 'The time has come/ he said, 'and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.'

16 As he was walking along by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net in the lake -for they were fisher­ men.

17 And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.'

18 And at once they left their nets and followed him.

19 Going on a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they too were in their boat, mending their nets. He called them at once

20 and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he em­ ployed, they went after him .

Meditation

On this Sunday, we begin the continuous reading of St Mark's gospel, which will be interrupted during Lent and Easter but will eventually take us to the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem in November of this year.

The journey begins in Galilee , the northernmost province of Palestine . This is where Jesus lays the foundation for his work of salvation. You might like to stay with this context of the passage - the humble beginnings (even in relationship with the rest of Palestine , Galilee is on the periphery) of what was to become a mighty work which has still not been completed.

The passage is in two sections:

•  verses 14-15: a summary of the preaching of Jesus;

•  verses 16-20: the call of the first disciples.

The first section is short, but every word is precious. Stay with the context of 'after John had been arrested,' remembering the enormous impact that the Baptist had made on the whole country, and gauging from that the traumatic effect of his arrest. Yet, what seemed to be the end of a movement was the begin­ ning of something new.

Take 'the kingdom of heaven' in a down-to-earth way, as an expression meaning the kind of society which would corre­ spond to what God wants. 'Is at hand' means that it is within our grasp.

The second section may seem artificial at a first reading, but it is the classical story of the moment of grace, sudden and yet totally natural in the sense that it seems to happen so easily, like a ripe fruit falls in our hand.

The two calls are clearly meant to be similar - St Mark is telling us that this is how a call always works out.

Prayer 

Lord, we thank you for the changes that have taken place in Eastern Europe.

They happened so suddenly and unexpectedly - yet it is always how moments of grace happen.

Like when John the Baptist was arrested and it seemed that the movement of religious renewal in the country had been blocked, but that was the occasion for Jesus to go into Galilee and proclaim the Good News from God.

So it was in those European countries.

People just knew that a new era was at hand,

they must change their ways of thinking and acting,

and trust that something great and wonderful was in store for them. Thank you, Lord.

' Some would consider our hopes Utopian. It may be that these persons are not realistic enough, and that they have not perceived the dy­ namism of a world which desires to live more fraternally. '
Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio

Lord, the role of the church is to preach the good news of God to the world, and the good news is that the kingdom of heaven is within our reach, if only we repent and believe that it is possible.

Lord, we pray for all the preachers of the gospel, especially those who give homilies at Sunday services.

Teach them not to be abstract in their preaching, but to proclaim the Good News of God as Jesus did - as new possibilities which are at hand.

They must of course preach repentance -but not as an imposition from outside; rather, as good news within ourselves, good news which we can trust.

' To destroy human power nothing more is required than to be indiffer­ ent to its threats and to prefer other goods to those which it promises. Nothing less, however, is required also.'
R. H. Tawney

Lord, your Son Jesus knew how to break the power of evil. When John was arrested,

he went into Galilee and preached the good news that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Lord, in the modern world we are accustomed to calculate things

before coming to decisions.

We have feasibility studies, computer printouts and charts.

Eventually we think that personal relationships can be planned too,

like choosing a marriage partner or a friend,

picking those we want to work with us on a project.

But we cannot plan those decisions.

These things work by a kind of instinct, like Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee

and seeing two fishermen casting a net in the lake and then saying to them, 'Follow me' and they left their nets and followed him.

Lord, when we want to start some work,

we like to start with the spectacular.

Teach us the way of Jesus, that when the time for action comes

we should go to the periphery of life and choose a few companions,

letting the kingdom grow from there.