13 January 2014
Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
I love a good rescue movie, such as The Lone Survivor, based on the true story of a Navy Seal on a daring mission. The “Meditation on the Incarnation” in the Spiritual Exercises depicts such a scene: the Trinity sending the Son to save humanity from eternal death. In the midst of the world’s brutality, Jesus “sets out to rescue the human race…from a situation where evil is everywhere and winning” (as poignantly said in The Dynamism of Desire). Just yesterday John had baptized Jesus. Now we hear that the Baptist “had been arrested.” We know that soon Herod will behead him. In this, we can already hear rumblings of our Lord’s Passion.
Yet our Lord is not deterred. He sets about announcing, “The Kingdom of God is at hand” and calling fishermen to be His collaborators on His saving mission. They drop everything at His word and go forward in His heroic footsteps. They want to be agents of God, “fishers of men.” What would you do if Christ came up to you and asked you to follow Him with everything that you are? He does precisely that; He wants your help. There is something today that you can do to “help souls” as St. Ignatius put it. What will you do to be part of Christ’s mission?