Skip to main content

The Calling of the Disciples

Today's (1/10/2011 Mark 1:14-20) Gospel reading has really stuck with me and developed in my mind over the course of the day. I wanted to share what I have been contemplating about today as a result of the reading. Believe me, I understand that this sounds cliche. I love it when the readings force me to see the the truth and beauty of what all to often gets written off as cliche.

The first thing that struck me was verse 1:15 “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”  I love this. I think I am so attracted to this saying because it is the LORD Himself saying "Your time has not run out. You have another opportunity to come to me."  Think about it. This is Mercy. The day of the LORD has come. But you still have a chance to repent of the evil you have done and make amends with GOD. If this were not true I think Christ may have said something like "Too late, I am here and you are out of luck." Thank you, Jesus, for your Mercy.

Another thing that struck me was Jesus called the disciples from their ordinary everyday job. They were not holy men. They were not cloistered monks. They were not parish priests. They were just some hard working regular Joes so to speak. I don't know about you, but all too often I think "Man, if I were a recluse monk I would be some kinda prayer warrior." Or, "If only I could dedicate myself full time to helping 'the least among us' I would be all kinds of holy".

Well, I guess after today's reading I am out of excuses. Jesus called the Disciples from their everyday jobs. Guess where I will be tomorrow. You got it, at my everyday job. St. Peter, St Andrew, St James, and St. John pray for me that I might hear Jesus when he calls on me tomorrow at my everyday job and asks me to follow Him!
Labels:

Comments

Marinell said…
Excellent - very insightful and a great testimony to your own spiritual growth. It is up to each person to take Christ to others and we are all called to do that.
Love you,
Mom
January 10, 2011 at 9:29 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Running Goals or Running Goal; What is it That I Want?

The other day I got all caught up in setting running goals for myself for the rest of the year. After the goals were set, I found myself starting to worry about how I was going to reach them. Wondering if there would be time to sufficiently prepare for them all. My goals were to run a 5k in under 20 minutes, to run a half marathon in 1:25 minutes and qualify for and run in the Boston marathon in 2014. At first, I thought that setting and meeting these goals would make me a more serious runner. In fact, I thought that to be the "serious" runner I want to be that I needed these goals. However, while I was running the other morning I realized that first of all, I was thinking about how to shift my training to meet my 5k goal. Then I began thinking about the right approach to a 1:25 half while training to qualify for Boston in a full marathon a month later. That is when I realized that the ancillary goals were starting to consume my focus and quite possibly i...
4 comments
Read more

The Rosary: Staying Focused

There are several obstacles that someone who has committed to pray the Rosary will face. Since the Rosary is a long prayer one of the biggest challenges I face is staying focused. If you have read my other posts or if you are just familiar with the prayer, you know that the mental contemplation of the Mysteries is the main focus of the prayer. So getting distracted really detracts from the prayer. Even if I am only praying 1 chaplet of the Rosary, it still takes about 20 minutes. In that amount of time your mind is bound to wander some. I have found several different things to help me when my mind begins to drift off to the worries of everyday life. The first is to understand that this is going to happen and be watching for it. If I am not vigilant I can get through a whole decade and realize I have not thought one single time about the Mystery that I should have been contemplating. So before I begin the prayer I make a conscious determination to be watchful of my wandering mind. O...
3 comments
Read more

My AMDG Run: An Answered Prayer.

I have never been a person to pray for specific favors. It never felt right to me. My prayers generally are for strength, guidance, an acceptance of what comes my way. That is always how I "felt" right praying. To pray for a specific favor like a good grade, to do well in some competition and things like that just always felt a little wrong and to pray for physical healing was something I never would have considered. I am not saying this was any kind of selflessness. I am not sure exactly what it was. A fear of seeming childish or perhaps it was out of fear that my faith would be shaken if the prayer wasn't answered. Regardless, this is how I generally pray. And that is not to say that I don't or didn't think that God doesn't concretely answer prayers. I believe that He does. For instance I have always prayed when overwhelmed something like "God, I cannot do this all alone, please help me" and I will somehow, someway find my way through whatever it...
3 comments
Read more