11 January 2016
Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel records that at the very beginning of his Public Life, Jesus announced that “the reign of God is at hand.” Now! Then, after being baptized by John, he began his mission, emphasizing that in order to understand its content, in order to accept it, each person had to change his life. Hard words. Today I’ll ask the Holy Spirit what I have to change in my life to understand and implement Jesus’ mission, his Father’s plan, for me.
Wasting no time, Jesus then made his way to where men were doing their ordinary jobs. “Come after me,” he said. Surprisingly, they did. The he rushed on to another group. “Cone after me.” Again they did. They changed their lives. They left all to follow him.
Today Jesus makes the same call, but whether it is because of the noise in which we are engulfed or for other reasons, so many young men do not hear his invitation to be a co-worker with him to fulfill the Father’s plan for the human race.
Pray today for young men to hear the invitation he is giving them to be “fishers of men” – priests, especially diocesan priests.