Gospel of Mark, chapter 1:4

You cannot build a house without planning how to do it. In the same way, you cannot follow Christ without preparing yourself first. The preparation Jesus demands of us in order to follow Him is to reform our lives.

The Apostles who followed Jesus abandoned their old way of life; they left their fishing nets, their boats, and their homes to follow Him. This does not mean that they never felt discouraged or weak or afraid. They did. Everybody gets discouraged at one time or another.

There’s a story about a man who was vacationing at his parents’ home. He had a stressful job, and was glad to be able to unwind in the company of his parents away from the pressure of his work. He said to his mother one day: “I’m not going back to church anymore!”
“Why?” asked his mother.
“For two reasons,” He replied.
“I don’t like the people, and the people don’t like me.”
“My son,” said the mother. “I love you dearly, and will always support you, no matter what.
But, I will give you two reasons why you should go back to church.
First, you are sixty years old. Second, you are the Pastor.”

Even priests get discouraged. That is why they need the virtue of Perseverance. Jesus did not say it would be easy to follow Him. He said that we must deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him. The first order of business in following Him is to reform our lives; to change our internal attitudes; to let go of sin and negative emotions that lead to sin.

“You cannot put new wine into the old wineskins,” Jesus says. (Luke 5:37) The new wine is the good news of the Gospel, and the old wineskins are the old habits of human nature; old habits of pride, greed, lust, gluttony, jealousy, anger and laziness. Jesus is asking us to abandon these bad, old habits in order follow Him, and to replace them with Gospel values or virtues: humility, generosity, purity, temperance, co-operation, love, and fidelity.

This is why Jesus says: “Reform your lives and believe in the good news.”

Fr. Hugh Duffy