Explain how this teaching about discipleship might affect the life of a Christian today.

AS and A Level Religious Studies & Philosophy

Explain how this teaching about discipleship might affect the life of a Christian today. (A02)

Disciples today are called Christians. As a disciple we must know what vocation means for ourselves as it can mean different things for different people. Once we are baptised we enter the Christian family and we become disciples of Jesus. All baptised Christians therefore have an obligation to live out their vocation. Parents prove to be a good example as they do this by teaching their children about God and by showing them a good example to follow. Priests also prove to be a good example as their vocation is to preach and teach to his or her people and to serve them as best he can. Also a teacher has a vocation to look after his students and to prepare them for life and exams. To live out their vocation properly, Christians should develop these four following areas: service, prayer, faith and worship, the same way in which the first disciples did in Mark’s Gospel.

In living a Christian life myself, I have observed that service is an important aspect of life. This is evident in my local parish in many ways. An example of service is the local priest. He serves the parish by visiting elderly people, the sick in their homes, in hospitals or wherever they are located and visiting schools to convince youths to help out in the local parish by serving at mass and so forth. He offers to talk to those in need and administers the sacraments. An excellent example of world service is Mother Theresa. She devoted her whole life to serving and helping people in Calcutta and India. She is an excellent example of a voluntary worker. She went to a different country less well off than her own country and offered her help. By serving others Christians are living out Christ’s teaching to be a servant of all and to put others before themselves. An example of this is in the story of ‘James and John’. After their request, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, he came to serve and to give his life to redeem people.” This would suggest that instead of always being served by other people, you should also serve. Service is therefore a very important aspect of the Christian Lifestyle and it is continuing the work of Jesus.

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Prayer is also a very important part of Christian Lifestyle today. Some people believe that in order to live out their vocation they must know God better and they must have a better relationship with him, and they have to pray more to him. People can pray to God at various times; at mass, in the morning, at night, at school or privately on their own. This, however, is not always the case. Many people neglect prayer and let materialism, commercialism and other various things get in their way of prayer. For some people the only prayer time is when they are in need of something or are in some sort of trouble. This lack of prayer breaks down their relationship with God and we do not get a chance to tell him tow we are doing and feeling. Jesus also prayed a number of times to his father in Mark’s Gospel. He prayed to his father when he was in the desert and in the Garden of Gethsemane just before he was arrested. He wanted his disciples to also pray. They wouldn’t have the necessary powers to cure people if they didn’t pray. An example of this is when the disciples failed to drive out an evil spirit in a little boy. The disciples could not understand this and so they asked Jesus why this happened and they were told that it was because of their lack of faith and prayer. From this story we can establish that prayer is an important aspect of Christian life today and there fore Christian must find time to pray.

There are so many similarities between the first disciples in Mark’s Gospel and Christian life today. All followers of Jesus are asked to be committed to him. The first disciples and today’s Christians have a vocation, which involves finding time to pray, serve others, build up their faith and worship God. Some would argue that discipleship is much harder for the early Christians because they suffered persecutions and death because of their faith and yet remained faithful and this is something that we can learn from. It would be fair to say that many Christians today are Christians in name only as many fail to live a Christian life and many hear the Word of God and choose to ignore it. Many do not have time to go to Mass, to pray or even worship God in the slightest way. Too many Christians are not as committed as the first disciples. Many fail to put others before themselves and to live as part of a committed community. Many are prepared to put wealth before God. Despite living in a world 2000 years after Jesus our commitment should still be the same. We are still worshipping the same God and therefore should be committed.

Conclusion

In conclusion there are many similarities between discipleship in Mark’s Gospel and Christians today. What is needed is a strong faith and commitment to one’s call and a willingness to remain faithful despite the many challenges they will face.

Conor McGovern