Commentary

3rd Sunday - B
Mark 1:14-20

An invitation to a radical change

In this passage, St. Mark gives us three points related to conversion.

First, it is God's invitation. Jesus came from God to offer us the invitation in the form of his gospel.

Second, the reason for the invitation to converstion is the fact that the Kingdom of God is at hand. And the kingdom is a gift from God.

And finally, St. Mark offers us some models of how one can respond to God's invitation to repent and believe in the gift of the Kingdom. The disciples, once heard the invitation, give a total response and a radical abandonment of everything that they know and have. They are fishermen who abandon their nets, boats, and their hired men. They are sons who leave their father, and consequently, their inheritance. But more than just the inheritance. By leaving their father, the disciples also leave "their connections to a family and a family tradition."(1) And it is all done immediately. Theirs is a radical response. All because they have heard the invitation from God and have accepted it as a gift.

One final note, all of this happened after John the Baptist had been "arrested." This is the exact same verb St. Mark used to speak of what would happen to Jesus throughout his gospel. (2) For the first generation of Christians who read and heard the call of the disciples and their radical response, it must have been so meaningful and real since the events in the life of the Christ and his disciples were fresh on their minds. They knew what it meant to respond to God's invitation in a radical way.

That same gift and that same invitation are being offered me today. How is my response?
------------------------
(1) Moloney, Francis J. The Gospel of Mark: a Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002; p. 53.
(2) Ibid. p. 48.