This sense of a beginning in our Lord’s public ministry felt here in Matthew’s gospel (Isaiah 8:23, 9:3; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23) transitions into a movement that gathers followers in places like Bethsaida and Sidon, Gadara and a grassy hillside. The movement makes its way to Jerusalem as one by one, the crowds peel away and disciples scatter until only Jesus is left before a sneering mob and a splintered cross.
And so what is this sense of a beginning for you? How might you make this moment a beginning moment in your life? What if you acknowledged your apprehension with one breath and then took in deeply the oxygen of resolve saying with your lips and lives, “I will follow, too!”
And who knows where this beginning might lead: a changed heart, a more open acceptance of others in their need and longings, and even a new awareness that God’s Spirit in Christ is the very atmosphere in which we live and move and have our being.
- Deacon Robert
“Help one another: This is what Jesus teaches
us, and this is what I am doing—and doing with all
my heart—because it is my duty. As a priest and a
bishop, I must be at your service. But it is a duty that
comes from my heart. I love it.”
~ Pope Francis
