Monday's Gospel: Good News

Gospel for Monday in the 1st Week of Ordinary Time, and commentary

Gospel (Mk 1:14-20)

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.”

And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him.


Commentary

In the first chapter of his Gospel, Mark tells us that Jesus began his public life by preaching the “gospel of God.” Let us consider these words once again in all their force: Jesus has come to bring God’s “good news” personally to the men and women who are willing to listen to him with faith.

We will discover little by little in the pages of the Gospel what this good news entails. But our Lord makes it clear right from the start that, in order to grasp his message, we need to be ready to change what is not in accord with it in our own life, to convert and open our heart to him.

In the passage that we read today, we are told that part of this good news is the reality that God is a king who wants to reign here on earth. Certainly this message runs the risk of being misinterpreted, since his kingdom is of a special kind and is not like earthly kingdoms. Together with the apostles we will learn that God does not want his power to be based on control and force, but on service and mutual love.

Like the apostles, our Lord continues to call each and every person to share in spreading the gospel message, while asking us whether we have truly accepted his words as good news for our own lives. This is a good opportunity to resolve to try to better understand the deep meaning of Jesus’ message and thus to experience with renewed force the joy brought by his good news.

Martín Luque