The Lord's Invitation to Follow Him

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 4: 18-22, we are told the story of Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee.  He sees two brothers fishing and says to them:  “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men [of people].”  He walks a little further and sees two other brothers and He calls them likewise.  All four men immediately leave their boats, their families and friends to follow Jesus.  Wow!  How is that for vocation promotion! A simple “Come and follow me,” and immediately Jesus has four men who join Him in His mission to devote all of their life to building up the Kingdom of God, spreading  the good news of our salvation-- the Messiah has come—and growing in intimacy with the Lord, hanging on to His every word. They stay with Him and learn from Him a new way of living and loving and being: one with the will of the Father, as Jesus was one with His Father’s will. They learn to  surrender to the Spirit, who may, at any time, lead them out into the desert to confront Satan, to the shore of Galilee, or wherever, to share the Good News, or to the cross to die to sin and overcome darkness.  The Spirit is truly their counselor, consoler, and strength builder, as Jesus teaches them by word and example!

It is being at one with the will of our God that is the core of any vocation: religious life, marriage, priesthood, the diaconate or the single lifestyle.  To which vocation in life is God calling you? God’s call goes further! To what ministry/job/career is God inviting you to do the good for which you were created and for which God gave you the talent to thrive and do the most good?  To and in what task today does God invite you to be His loving Presence, His compassionate understanding, or His reconciling Voice?

Today is the second day of a busy students' retreat. The Scripture passage that the students are reflecting upon is Mark 10: 17-22, the story of the rich young man who comes to Jesus wanting to know what more he has to do to inherit eternal life. He addresses Jesus as "good" and Jesus asks him why he addressed Him that way, as only God is good. Thus Jesus reveals his true identity to the  young man. Jesus tells him that he needs to keep all of the commandments. The young man says that he's done that all of his life. Jesus tells him that one thing is missing, namely, that he needs to sell all that he has and give the money to the poor and then come follow Him. The wealthy young man walks away sad because he prefers his wealth to following the Lord's directions, to developing an intimate relationship with the Lord and sharing "his wealth" with those less fortunate than himself.  Jesus, too, must have felt very sad, as he "was filled with love" for this man.

Every day, you and I, like this young man, are free to walk away from the Lord's invitation to "sacrifice" for a greater good, to give to "the poor" who want of our time or whose well-being depends upon our willingness to share "our riches" with them.  "Go, sell all that you want to possess exclusively for yourself alone and share with others in love and care and forgiveness. Go, sell all and give of your "wealth"--whatever that "wealth" might be--and give to "the poor, whoever those persons are in your midst today.

Fishing according to God's plan

In Today’s Gospel,  Mk 1:14-20, the lives of Simon, Andrew, James and John were totally changed, turned upside down, if you will.  They are fishermen steeped in that way of making a livelihood, probably doing well from a business perspective.  They leave their families and their business and follow Jesus, who simply says to them:  “Come follow me. I will engage you in another form of fishing. Your bait: My Words, the Good News of salvation, the news of another Kingdom not of this world, the royal kingdom promised to your ancestors, a kingdom that will last forever.  And for whom will you be fishing? People of good will. People of faith, the faith of their Father Abraham, people wandering in “the wilderness” of their lives, hungering for the “Bread of Life” and Living Water.”

At our baptisms, each of us was also called to follow Jesus, to bring people to the “Bread of Life” and to Living Water, to bring people to Jesus and Jesus to people.  We were called to be heralds of the Good News that Jesus dwells among us in the Scriptures, in the Eucharist, comes down upon our altars in the sacrifice of the Mass every second of every day somewhere in the world.  We are called upon to teach our children that God is the true Treasure of our lives, that God is the one who empowers us to do good, that God is the One who saves us from this world’s idols and that what the world offers us as the answer to our unhappiness and lack of peace are false promises. Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life—that is why Simon, Andrew, James and John left everything to follow Him. 

“Come, I will make you a different kind of person, not one seeking “fish” or that which the world says you must have to be happy and powerful and above others  but persons seeking the Truth, the Way, the Life of the Kingdom that last forever!