MARK 1:14-20 MEDITATION - Part 2
The call to enter the Kingdom is for you
God’s ‘now’, the ‘fullness’ of time, has come for you who are reading these words. God is ready to move in, to establish his Kingdom of peace and joy within you. Make way for the Holy Spirit to enter and transform your emptiness, your sadness, your restlessness to shape and transform you from within. Allow your spirit to be receptive to the Holy Spirit to know that you, too, belong to the Kingdom of peace and joy and general wellbeing. Decide to rid yourself of that old, stale emptiness within. Decide to change direction of your life and let yourself be led by the only person who can lead you to fullness of life, the Holy Spirit of God.
When we reach that moment of decision, when we reach that personal ‘now’, when we become aware of God attracting us to himself, the source of peace and joy and wellbeing then we shall be gripped by that divine revelation and our response will be immediate and unhesistating just as the call of Jesus was for the first disciples.
There is nothing strange in the immediate response of the first disciples as related by Mark. It is the natural conclusion of that process of becoming aware of the action of God drawing us to himself. It was the call of repentance, the call for a change of heart by John the Baptist that prepared his listeners for the work of God within each person. Jesus was not interested in defining or debating the Kingdom but in making the Kingdom become operative in the lives of those he encountered, and so he wants to do with you. He came to make disciples, not scholars or debaters. He taught by example. He is showing what it is like to live in the Kingdom of peace, justice, and harmony. The Kingdom that brings reconciliation, healing, and wholeness on all levels of being. The King has now started to gather his subjects together, his followers, those who accept his presence, his guidance, his rule and example. A new reality is being born. We do not have only a group of people gathering around a leader or a master we have the beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth. 1
Perhaps you are now hearing that same call for a change of life, that call to accept and follow Jesus and enter into the Kingdom of peace and joy and wellbeing. If so just fall on your knees in the quiet of your room and say simply ‘come Lord Jesus’ (Revelation 22:20) and let the peace and joy of the Father that is beyond all understanding take root within. You will know what it really means to be in the Kingdom of God and you, too, like Jesus, will also proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom. You, too, will want to join the company of others who are also in that Kingdom.
You see, you are a vital part of God’s plan. All that preparation for the coming of Jesus was for you, so that you could be part of that Kingdom here and now, at this very moment. “Follow me” (v. 17). Listen to those words ringing out in your inner being every day and the gates of hell shall never prevail against that call. Just listen, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
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1 All Christians are called to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. This is the essence of Christianity. Pope Francis, for example, wrote:
I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. (Evangelii Gaudium, #3)
