3rd SUNDAY of ORDINARY TIME, year ’B’
“Jesus said, ’ The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.”
John the Baptist was arrested because he ensured the continuity of the prophetic call maintained in the Jewish people. John the Baptist asked each one to rectify thier lives just as Jonas had proclaimed in the First Testament. John the Baptist had asked for conversion. And this is when Jesus appeared, putting into place a new way of life in humanity in which he manifested the Infinite Love of God. He brings a presence of authority : ’Come behind me, ’ he said, and he gives to each one a place after him : ’I will make of you fishermen of people.’ The Good News takes shape in a people who walks, encouraged by a word that gets them going. So Jesus when calls his first disciples it is in a context of conversion. ’The time is accomplished, the Kingdom of God is close, convert and believe in the Good News.“”As he was walking along by the Lake of Galilee he saw Simon and Simon’s brother Andrew casting a net in the lake -for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ’Come after me and I will make you into fishers of people.’ And at once they left their nets and followed him."
When we get going and follow Jesus this is the first step to undertake and manifest an intention of being converted and moving elsewhere. Jesus moves away from Jerusalem, he will come back once he has called the Jewish people and all it is smade up of : the rich and the poor, men and women, the sick and those ’in good health’. Nobody is abandonned and left on the road side. And so Jesus began to call some of his Apostles. It is in this atmosphere that God’s Love shines forth in hearts and on faces. God is happy when his Love shines forth from the deepest part of our being. Jesus takes up his Creation in a fundamental way in order to make a new creature. Deep conversion will be efficient when the yes of our heart will have opened up a door to the Infinite Love of God. It is a fundamental conversion to God’s Love that will transform all our loves. Jesus announces this Good News : God is Love. He really did
come down to live amongst his people, becoming incarnate in human flesh. Henceforth we can live from the Infinite Love of God.
“Going on a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John ; they too were in their boat, mending the nets. At once he called them and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him.”
And so they set off, these fishermen of fish, and they were victorious over the strong, the rich and the wise. What a great miracle! Weak as they wear, they won the strong over to their doctrine without any violent means; poor, they taught the rich; ignorant, they made of thier disciples wise and prudent men. The wisdom of the world yielded a place to this wisdom which is in itself ’the Wisdom of wisdoms’, says St. Ephrem. They undertook this way out in a link with Jesus in order to do new things. These Aposles take on their responsability in their place of work, in their daily life, they are not alone. Jesus is there, present with them. We are all called, we leave our way of being according to the world, not so as to abandon it but so as to bring it hope by following Jesus and by living in a new love. Jesus accomplishes the work of the God of Love in each one of us, and when we are moved by this very great Love, the transformation of our being can come about. We just have to give our consentment. God will transform us and situate us in His Love. The Good News that has been announced becomes active and is lived in this call to live in the Infinite Love of God.