Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

The arrest­ing of John the Bap­tizer implies the end of his mis­sion and the begin­ning of the mis­sion of Jesus. John’s arrest also intens­i­fied the pro­clam­a­tion of the Good News. Put­ting John in pris­on can nev­er mean impris­on­ing also the Gos­pel mes­sage. Hence, Jesus invited all includ­ing those who arres­ted John, to repent and embrace the Good News of God’s king­dom. The mis­sion of pro­claim­ing the Good News is.….

The irresistible call

Jesus’ call Deute opisō mou – Come, fol­low me, was and remains an irres­ist­ible call. It is a divine invit­a­tion from which none can lib­er­ate himself/herself even if the per­son wishes. It is a mag­net­ic call. Jesus knows the nature of the mis­sion of the pro­clam­a­tion of the Gos­pel and, he equally knows the qual­i­fic­a­tions needed to be part of it. Mark reports that Jesus went up to a moun­tain and called to him­self those he wanted, they went to him and he con­sti­tuted them the Twelve Apostles (Mark 3:13–19). Now, those he wanted means those he has examined and found cap­able of being dis­ciples. Jesus did not choose his favour­ites, the chil­dren of his friends, his friends or even his rela­tions, or those who offer him money and spies against oth­er people. He called those who can deliv­er. Today, and in many of the Seni­or Sem­in­ar­ies and oth­er form­a­tion houses in the world, espe­cially, here in Niger­ia, the situ­ation is com­pletely the oppos­ite. And this is why things are not as they should be. Yet, those con­cerned seem to be com­fort­able with the situ­ation.     As already under­lined, the expres­sion come, fol­low me (Greek: deute opisō mou), is a com­mand and.…

Conclusion

Those who believed the teach­ings of Jesus and repen­ted of their sins exper­i­enced and con­tin­ue to exper­i­ence the power of the Good News by being lib­er­ated of their ail­ments, both phys­ic­al and espe­cially spir­itu­al. The first step towards any form of heal­ing is for one to abide by the teach­ings of the Gos­pel. That is, to repent and change one’s style of life which is not in har­mony with the divine dic­tates. Today.….

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I and II)!! The reflec­tion for the 3^rd Sunday of the Year (B) is found on vol. II pages 67–77. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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