Monday, January 11, 2010

Homily – January 11, 2010 – First Week in Ordinary Time - Monday

+ This is the first day of "ordinary time" in the new "year of grace" that God is giving us to live. "Ordinary" in this case means: "counting:" we are counting the days simply until year's end and we summarize all of the graces and blessing we have received because we were attentive to the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, in hopefully a deeper way this year than last.

After John the Baptist is imprisoned, thus marking the end of his public work, Jesus comes to Galilee (our gospel passage tells us) proclaiming the Gospel of God (his Father): "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel." Then Jesus begins selecting his inner band of close followers whom he would train specifically to understand and then to proclaim the same message to others when his earthly life is finished.

And so Simon, Andrew, James and John, among others, followed Jesus when he called them – abandoned what they were doing and planning to do – and freely gave Jesus permission to train them for great works in "the business of saving souls."

One of the reasons that we come to church weekly or daily is to hear the proclamation of the same Gospel of God (and have it explained to us): THIS IS THE TIME OF FULFILLMENT. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND. REPENT, AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL! The message is exactly the same – but this time the proclaimers are meant to be both those duly ordained to do so, but also everyone who repents, believes and is baptized – so that by the encouragement of example, others, many others in the world, will want to benefit from the amazing experience of life in the Kingdom of God, life in Jesus, life in the family of God!

The Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.

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