Jesus preached the gospel.

We can understand this more easily in ordinary life in ordinary life, we can understand this more easily, so let us be encouraged by it.

When a father, a mother says something profound to her child, they do it because they love them, they don’t want anything wrong for their children, they only want their happiness, joy, and contentment. They do not prevent them from enjoying; on the contrary, by their solemn word, they want to increase their satisfaction; they want to give them even more. The text of the Gospel goes on to say that after saying these words, Jesus stops by Simon and his brother Andrew and says to them: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” and then we read, “They immediately left their nets and followed him” (Mk 1:17-18). But we know that they die happy. We know this from their lives, from the Gospel, that after graduating from the school of Jesus, which was not easy at all, when they want to crucify Peter on one of the Roman hills, like his Master Jesus, he asks his murderers to crucify him upside down because he does not feel worthy to die like his Master. Jesus also calls John and his brother James the sons of Zebedee, and they leave their father and the hired laborers behind and follow Jesus. John was still a child, yet he understood. He made the most of his time and life in his old age. The other apostles were dead. As an older man, he writes the Gospel, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse to give us an example so that we too will take Jesus’ words seriously.

Let us willingly open our inward parts to Jesus and remove all evil from them. Today, Jesus wants us to do this, and we promise to do everything we can to withdraw from the corners of our hearts everything that prevents Jesus from taking possession of the whole of us. We can also be encouraged to do this by the example of our brother who said to me at carol time: “Worthy Sir, my confession last year, which I made years later, has made me so happy that I have not committed a single grave sin this year.” He said this publicly in the circle of his family. Indeed, it was true, for the whole family had experienced it with him. However, he added: “I had a hard time coming to this decision.”

Let us also accept this word of encouragement and do what the Lord Jesus wants us to do: Let us repent and believe the Gospel.