Preaching the good news of God
Today is the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary time and the gospel is about the beginning of the Galilean Ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can read this gospel passage in Mark 1:14-20.
“After John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee and began preaching the Good News of God. He said, “The time has come; the Kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe the Good News.” As Jesus was walking along the shore of the Lake Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” At once, they abandoned their nets and followed him. Jesus went a little farther on and saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee; they were in their boat mending their nets. Immediately Jesus called them and they followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men.”
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John the Baptist was the precursor of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was born from his supposedly barren mother, Elizabeth. But then the angel appeared before her husband Zechariah and told him that his wife would bear a son in her old age. In the sixth month of her pregnancy, the Angel Gabriel appeared before the Virgin Mary to announce to her that she would bear a Son and she should call her Jesus. Remember in ancient times, no one knew whether your child was a boy or girl until the baby comes out of the womb.
So the story of John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ is no doubt tied up together. John the Baptist began preaching in the wilderness and baptizing in the River Jordan and a multitude of Jews went to him for Baptism, even as far away as Jerusalem and many became his disciples. But after our Lord Jesus Christ went to John at the Jordan River for his Baptism, John then said, “That he must increase while I must decrease.”
This is exactly what happened when our Lord Jesus Christ heard that John the Baptist was arrested by King Herod, he immediately took over where John had left off… saying “The time has come; the Kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe the Good News.” He then went to the Sea of Galilee and started recruiting his Apostles.
First to be called was Simon Peter and his brother Andrew. But this scripture from Mark the evangelist is a bit too simple. I liked the version of Luke Chapter 6: 1-11 when our Lord Jesus was in Capernaum and right after our Lord Jesus cured the mother-in-law of Simon, he again saw Simon with his brother Andrew in two boats after they were done fishing, our Lord Jesus entered the boat of Simon and asked him to put into the water a distance from the shore and started preaching to the crowd along the shore.
Then he told Simon, ”Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon protested, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing; but at your command I will lower the nets.” Suddenly they caught a great number of fish… to the point their nets were tearing, with the boats so full of fish, they were nearly sinking. Simon and his brother were so astonished with this catch; they must have looked at it as a miracle.
As they got back ashore, Simon fell on his knees and said to our Lord Jesus, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” With Simon and Andrew were his partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee; then our Lord Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be fishers of men.” A couple of years ago, I was blessed to visit Capernaum, where today on top of the ruins of the house of Simon Peter, there is a church, which was constructed using funds from all over the world. In fact there was a plaque that indicated that Don Ramon Durano also donated funds for that church.
The church is circular in shape and in the middle of the circle is a glass floor where you can see directly the house of St. Peter. We heard the Holy Mass there and during the services, my mind went back to what was written in the scriptures that our Lord Jesus Christ entered this house and cured Simon Peter’s moth-in-law. Beside this house is a huge synagogue which no doubt our Lord Jesus also preached the Good News from there.
But Capernaum is a very small village and perhaps because our Lord cured Simon’s mother-in-law, the villagers became curious about this man from Nazareth and when he got into the boat of Simon Peter, he preached to the villagers from there, then asked Simon to go deeper and caught all the fish. This was the message that our beloved Ricardo Cardinal Vidal imparted upon us to go deeper into our Catholic faith and like Simon Peter and the Apostles, we will be fishers of men. Now isn’t this one of the messages that Pope Francis imparted upon us Filipinos to evangelize the Word of God throughout Asia? Therefore as Catholics, let us all be fishers of men!
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