In today's Gospel, John 21: 20-25, Peter, after being instructed by Jesus concerning what Jesus wanted of him, Peter notices John and says to Jesus: What about him? Jesus responds: "What concern is it of yours. You follow me." It is so easy for us, I think, to put our focus on others, to be concerned about others in ways that distract us from what God is asking of us! With our attention focused on the issues of other people, on what we think another person should or should not be doing, we distract ourselves from looking within at what in us needs to change, on what attitudes within us are contrary to God's will for us, on motivations that direct us away from being the persons God calls us to become.
"You follow me," Jesus says to us when we are into other people's business. God may be asking us to be involved in family, church, community projects to which another person is not called. It is not our task to decide what another person's "business" is but it is our task to discern God's will for us. Is something happening in our civic community to which God is calling us? Is something being offered at our parish in which we are being invited to participate? Are there family responsibilities to which God is asking us to devote more attention? Are we aware of God's call to us personally or are we so into critiquing other people that we are blind and deaf to what God is asking of us personally?
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