“This is the time of fulfillment…” Jesus announces to us the good news as he begins his public ministry and this good news is that we now are living in the time of fulfillment. With the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, the Son of God, God is now fulfilling the promises that he has made to humanity. The earlier testamental time before the first coming of Jesus the Christ was a time of promise. The world had fallen under the shadow of death because of sin but God had promised a restoration of life. All of the promises of God are promises of life. God promises to free us from the slavery of sin and the condemnation of death because of sin and to restore us to new life, an abundant life, a life of freedom as the children of God.

Jesus is sent to us from God to lead us into the abundant life, an eternal life of glory and freedom as the children of God. Jesus will offer himself and his life that we may share through the Spirit of life that he will leave us as the fullness of life. The fullness of life will be given to us as a gift of faith if we accept and believe in the life and teaching of Jesus, the Son of God, the way to the Father, who is the source of life. The way that Jesus offers us to life is a way of faith, evidenced by an obedience of faith. The beginning of our journey into true life is faith. “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1,14) This way of faith will lead us to the end that we most deeply desire for our lives and that proper end is love. The journey of transformation that begins with faith is a continual process of conversion from a self-serving love to a self-gifting love. Thus for us as Christians, the way of faith, the way of life becomes a way of the cross of Christ. We learn along this way to die to ourselves so that we may live more fully the life of the Risen Christ, the victor over sin and death. Jesus will thus tell his disciples that the way that the world will know that they are his disciples is by the love that they have for one another.

Jesus begins his public ministry with the admonition to repent and believe. This is the beginning of our journey into the Kingdom of God. We must leave an old way of life behind and begin to live in a new way with a new goal or end in mind for our lives. This goal can no longer be a selfish end such as personal power or enrichment but now must be one of service that will be the evidence of the love of Jesus at work in us. We will still be the person in truth that we are but now we will be perfecting the gifts that are given to us for the service of our brothers and sisters in love. As Jesus calls the sons of Jonah and the sons of Zebedee to leave behind their nets he acknowledges that they are truly fishermen and he doesn’t intend to change who they are but he redirects them to now become “fishers of men”. God’s grace and the journey of faith works upon us to perfect our human nature not to destroy it. It builds upon our nature and helps us to discover our true purpose in life, our true vocation.
“They abandoned their nets and followed him…” We are told that the disciples “abandoned their nets” and indeed all of us in the way of discipleship are asked to “abandon our nets” or the way that we did things before and to follow Jesus, to learn a new Way from him. He will give us “new nets” with which to fish, nets of kindness, mercy, compassion and love in service to our brothers and sisters. Our journey begins in faith, in self abandonment, and continues along a constant process of conversion into Christ until we reach our true end of love and find our home in the Kingdom of God.

The way of Jesus the Christ is a way of life and those who follow that way must be a people of life who choose life rather than death and who help to defend the lives of those who cannot defend themselves. God is the author of life and all life belongs to him. We are stewards of that life and we realize that even our life is not our own but belongs to God. There can be no “right” to end a human life once it has begun at conception. Love demands that we protect all human life from conception to natural death. Please pray for an end to abortion, the willful taking of a human life, and pray for all people to have a greater respect for all human life. May the promise of life for each individual person find its fulfillment in a life of discipleship to Jesus the Christ.