3rd Sunday of the Year
Year B Gospel Mk 1:14-20

“Repent and believe the Good News.”

The Greek word for repentance has a richer meaning than our English word.  While the English word implies regret for sin, the Greek includes the idea of a change in view, a transformation of one’s outlook on life.

To embrace the Gospel, we each have views that our bad news in our lives and from which we have to turn, to repent. These views undermine our love of God, of ourselves and of our neighbours.
Perhaps we believe that God is a judge waiting to catch us out in sin;
that we have deserved suffering in our lives;
that we really aren’t worth much;
that life is meaningless;
that eat, drink and be merry is a good way to live;
that there is nothing more than what we see or experience to life;
that life is something we can control if we try hard enough.

Such assumptions, and we each have a few, can stop the Good News transforming our lives. 

When we change our view what are we to change to? 
The extraordinary knowledge that God loved us so dearly that he sent his Son,
that God is love and works all things in our lives for love;
that God can turn sin, our dirty little sins, into places of abundant grace;
that not only can God forgive, we are given also the ability to forgive;
that God’s love cannot be earned but we have only to receive it freely;
that God’s Laws are not to make us miserable but to make us great;
that God does not judge us according to our ability, our looks or our success;
that life is a mystery, which will only unfold with time and reflection.

In this coming week, consider the ways your mind or your heart undermines the Gospel in your life and call on Jesus to come, preach his Good News to you: God became human that we might become divine.  Our dignity and calling are great.  Anything that makes us believe less, is false, is bad news and to be repented of. 

 

Sr Kym Harris OSB
Benedictine Monastery

Past Reflections