"Come after Me"!

 In today's Gospel, Matthew 4: 18-22, Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee and spots two brothers, Simon and Andrew, professional fishermen, busily fishing, engaged in their arduous profession. He says to them: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of [people]".   Jesus continues walking and spots two other men, brothers James and John, "in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him."

Who was this man? Four professional fishermen immediately leave their profession and their families and follow Him when He simply says to them: "Come after me!"  Would you, would I, immediately leave our jobs, our families--leave everything behind--and answer Jesus' call? Would we immediately stop what we are doing and follow Jesus into an unknown life, an unknown profession, an uncertain  future?

And what did the father of James and John think? His two sons, copartners in his fishing business, simply get up and abandon him. They seem to be following a stranger!  Are they crazy? What came over them to immediately walk away from him and their family?

Being a disciple of Jesus, following God's call, demands that we leave everything else behind. God wants our all: our total commitment, be that marriage, parenthood, religious life, priestly life, the deaconate, or the single life!  Are we willing to sacrifice everything to be in sync with God's will for us? Simon and Andrew, James and John were! And they did not turn back!

May you and I recognize who is calling us to a lifetime of faithfulness as a married person and a parent, a single person, a woman/man religious, a priest, a deacon! May we, in cooperation with the Spirit at work within us, embrace a life of sacrificial love in which we leave the past behind and forge a future with Him and for Him and through Him.