Reflection for January 13 Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time: Mark 1:14-20

Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfilment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” 

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.

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Reflection:

The story is told about a man who dreamed that he died. Thus he dreamt being ushered into a dark and grisly environment wherein he heard people groaning in agony.  Then he saw the devil frighteningly smiling at him motioning him to go towards him. He quickly run away as fast as he could and soon after he woke up from his horrible dream. The man incidentally was living a very sinful life. 

The horrifying dream led the man to church he prayed and ask Jesus’ forgiveness then he saw the confessional booth. He went there and confessed his sins to the priest and the priest advised him to repent and follow Jesus by faithfully practicing his faith. 

The story of this man is our own story of sinfulness too, we are sinful and we keep on sinning. Would we allow the devil to continue to enslave us by incessantly sinning? Would we allow the devil to bring us to hell by ignoring Jesus’ call of repentance? What if we die right now do we want to end up in hell and be in the possession of the devil? 

No one of us is wishing for hell, deep inside our beings we yearn for heaven and God, we yearn for peace and serenity in our life. And this is what God wants for us also; He wants to give us peace and calmness that He only can give us. But what must we do?  We must repent, believe in the gospel and follow Jesus. 

In the gospel for this Monday, the four fishermen (Simon, Andrew, James and John) heard this call of repentance of Jesus for they too were sinful just like all of us. Then after repenting they followed Jesus to become His disciples. 

Do you also hear Jesus’ call of repentance?  – Marino J. Dasmarinas