Fishers of Men

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B. 

January 22, 2011

Mark. 1: 14 - 20    “Come after me; I will make your fishers of men.”

In today’s Gospel, Mark deals with two calls. He first sets forth the call to repentance to all of us: “Reform your lives and believe in the good news.” Conversion is a truly lifetime job which requires daily perseverance! Secondly, Mark relates another call of the disciples referring to “call-vocation,” in particular, the call to total, lifetime dedication to Christ, including one’s sexuality, as an ongoing process. The disciples have just spent the entire day with the Lord and in today’s Gospel reading we witness a definitive decision on the part of the disciples. “They abandoned their father Zebedee who was in boat with the hired men and went off in the company of Jesus!”

            We now ask ourselves: Have we ever experienced the call to genuine conversion? As we have been living our life from day to day, have we encountered clear signs that the Lord is calling us to his service?

            We now turn in prayer to God: “O GOD, GRANT US THE GRACE TO TRULY CHANGE OUR LIVES AND TO FIRMLY BELIEVE IN CHRIST’S CALL TO REPENTANCE AND TO CONVERSION. THIS WE ASK OF YOU THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN.