Today we begin Ordinary Time.
Today we hear from the beginning of the Gospel of Saint Mark.
Today is a day of beginnings.
Today points us in the direction of God the Father.
Christ sustains all things by his powerful word. For those who are willing to abandon everything in this world, Christ confers the gift of everlasting life.
Such men are the apostles Andrew and Simon, James and John. They leave everything to go off in Jesus’ company, having received a commission from Him to become “fishers of men.” They are called to share in the life of Christ, and at this point, they have no idea what this will entail. This is how beginnings always are: we have no real idea of what is going to transpire in the future. If these four men had known that each of them would share deeply in the suffering of Christ—three of them, through martyrdom, and Saint John, at the foot of the Cross—it is unlikely they ever would have left their boats.
At the beginning of this season of Ordinary Time, let us pray for the grace to be faithful to the calling which we entered into through Baptism.
Christ sustains all things by his powerful word. For those who are willing to abandon everything in this world, Christ confers the gift of everlasting life.
Such men are the apostles Andrew and Simon, James and John. They leave everything to go off in Jesus’ company, having received a commission from Him to become “fishers of men.” They are called to share in the life of Christ, and at this point, they have no idea what this will entail. This is how beginnings always are: we have no real idea of what is going to transpire in the future. If these four men had known that each of them would share deeply in the suffering of Christ—three of them, through martyrdom, and Saint John, at the foot of the Cross—it is unlikely they ever would have left their boats.
At the beginning of this season of Ordinary Time, let us pray for the grace to be faithful to the calling which we entered into through Baptism.
