Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
(I Samuel 1:1-6; Mark 1:14-20)
The first words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark are
telling. He says them in in today’s
gospel passage: “This is the time of fulfillment.” It is fair, even necessary,
to ask, “fulfillment of what?” What are the desires and hopes that are now
going to be fulfilled?
In an insightful article journalist David Brooks says that
among Americans there has been a telling shift in hopes and desires. No longer do they want love, at least as defined
in a classical way of giving oneself completely to another, either one person,
a group of people, or a cause. Rather,
he says, today most people want autonomy, a detachment from others so that one they
might pursue personal interests without commitments standing in the way.
For Jesus fulfillment means the connecting of people to
God. This desire has been named “the
holy longing.” Jesus is here to bring us much closer to the Lord and to one
another. He is present in the Church
which gathers us as brothers and sisters and directs our corporate self to his
loving Father.
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