nunblog

Today's Gospel (Mark's version of the call of the fishermen Peter, Andrew, James and John) pairs nicely with a passage from Pope John Paul's document on consecrated life. In a reflection on the Transfiguration (an event to which Peter, James and John were witnesses), he writes, "The words from on high" ("This is my beloved son: listen to him!"--similar to the words we heard in yesterday's Gospel of the Baptism of the Lord) "give new depth to the invitation by which Jesus himself, at the beginning of his public life, called them to follow him, to leave their ordinary lives behind and to enter into a close relationship to him..." (Vita Consecrata, 16). Peter's words at the Transfiguration express the joy of a person who has found the treasure hidden in a field: "How good it is that we are here!" Pope John Paul draws this out a bit more: "How good it is for us to be with you, to dedicate ourselves to you, to make you the one focus of our lives!"