José Alberto Rincón, L.C.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ, our King, Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
Lord, grant me to move forward in my life with the firm desire to respond promptly to your love.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Mark 1:14-20
After John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee to preach the Gospel of God and said, “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Be converted and believe in the Gospel.”
Jesus was walking by the shore of Lake Galilee when he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the lake, for they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
A little farther on, he saw James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were in a boat mending their nets. He called them, and they, leaving their father in the boat with the workers, went with Jesus.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Communicating is something that all human beings do day in and day out. It is enough to look around us and reflect a little to realize how many times people talk to each other. But how many listen? This is one of the dramas of our times: we know how to talk very well, but we are clumsy listeners.
The disciples whom Jesus first met on his way lived a different reality. They were men accustomed to doing things, but also imbued with the attitude of expectation that was lived in their time. Some in Israel believed that the Messiah was about to arrive, and this was perceived everywhere by those who were willing to read the signs of the times.
Jesus enters this scenario with a clear message of conversion. He continues what John the Baptist had begun, in spite of the risk involved. There is an urgency that moves him. The time is fulfilled. What time? God's time. The Kingdom is at hand.
This Kingdom is Jesus himself who draws near to all those who want to be touched by him, to all those who are willing to turn their hearts to him. Yes, the disciples were witnessing something extraordinary. But that does not mean that we, two thousand years away, cannot have our own experience of calling. They knew how to listen and, in the silence of everyday life, they heard a voice that gave them the simple indication to follow him.
We already know what became of them, of that audacity in their response. Do we also respond immediately to that voice? It is necessary, now more than ever, to make sure that we are not entangled in the nets of the world. Lest Jesus pass in front of us, call us, and we cannot go because our hands are tied.
«We are waiting for your kingdom to come: we ask for it and we desire it because we see that the dynamics of the world do not facilitate it. Dynamics oriented by the logic of money, of interests, of power. When we find ourselves submerged in an ever more unbridled consumerism, which captivates with dazzling but ephemeral splendors, help us, Father, to believe in what we implore: to renounce the comfortable securities of power, the deceitful seductions of worldliness, the vain presumptions of believing ourselves to be self-sufficient, the hypocrisy of keeping up appearances. In this way we will not lose sight of that Kingdom to which you call us.»
(Homily of H.H. Francis, May 31, 2019).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
I will try to take a moment during the day to search in the depths of my soul for what Jesus is asking of me at the beginning of this year.
Farewell
We thank You, Lord, for all Your benefits, You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
