Believe! Believe in the Gospel

III Sunday “B” Mark 1, 14-20 “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Today we begin reading the Gospel of Mark which we will be reading during this coming year, and the Gospel reading today is the call of the first disciples. It is a bit different from John’s call of the first disciples which we heard last week; in Mark Peter is first and in John Peter was third, but we don’t need to worry about those details. Rather than focus on the call I want to focus on Jesus’ message: “Repent and Believe in the Gospel.” This is one of the prayers we can say when we receive ashes on Ask Wednesday; but what does it mean to repent? What does it mean to believe in the Gospel? We repent when we are sorry for something that we did, when we made a bad choice or hurt someone. But repent means much than just being sorry. Repent is more than just leaving behind some sin. Repent means to make an about turn of 180 degrees; it is more than just turning away from sin; it means to turn to God. It means to make God the direction of our life. So not only sinners need to repent; we all need to repent, we need to orientate ourselves in the direction of God! So how do we repent? By believing in the Gospel. What does “Gospel” mean? Since the Gospels were written until 30 or 40 years after the death of Jesus, it doesn’t just mean believe in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. For Mark Gospel means everything: it is Jesus’ ministry, his journey to Jerusalem, the cross and the Resurrection. It is the whole story of Jesus. To believe in the Gospel means to believe in Jesus, it means to believe and follow his way of life. Today’s Gospel is the call of the first disciples, so the disciples are meant to show us what it means to be a follower of Jesus. To believe in the Gospel doesn’t simply mean we believe the story of Jesus. No, it means more than believing in the story, it means that we wish to follow Jesus, we wish to be one with Jesus. It means that we want to follow the path of Jesus, that we want to be like Jesus. We know where the path of Jesus led, it led to calvary and his death and then the resurrection. So, what does that mean for us living here in Mexico City in the year 2024? What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus today? In this time and this place? For some of you here in means loving your children as I know you do. I can’t talk about love of children directly, but I have learned from you that loving your children involves sacrifice it involves giving, giving of yourself. It also means loving your parents, something I do know directly. Today would be my mother’s birthday, she would be 92 today. I want to tell you a bit about the love my brothers and sisters had for my parents. My dad died first, 12 years ago and my mother was very strong but mainly my sisters helped my mom take care of my dad when he was dying. Then a little more than a year later my mom got sick. We all took turns staying with my mom so that she was never alone. Even my sister Maureen retired early from her job to help take care of our mother. In a word to believe in the Gospel means to believe in love. Not just love a compassion or desire but love with sacrifice.