"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men"
Jonah 3: 1-5, 10
I Cor 7: 29-31
Mk 1: 14 – 20
The Sunday Word: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012118.cfm
"You gave us the same Word made flesh as Mediator,
and he has spoken your words to us
and called us to follow him.
He is the way that leads to you,
the truth that sets us free,
the life that fills us with gladness."
(From Preface of Eucharistic Prayers for various Needs, III)
Recently I noticed what appears to be an increased number of “help wanted” signs. More businesses are calling for new hires particularly in the service industry. You see the ask in fast food restaurants, gas stations, retail stores. I’m sure it is the same in other varied occupations who have “help wanted” calls out through a variety of means such as an on-line search, colleges, job sights on the internet, and other ways. Sometimes, word of mouth is the best advertisement or being fortunate enough to know somebody who knows somebody. Yet, the search for meaningful work can be frustrating and it often takes time to find just the right fit. Jesus too is seeking hires but to far more than an occupation.
Our Gospel passage this Sunday from Mark continues the same theme of call we heard last Sunday from the Gospel of John. Last Sunday, it was John the Baptist who sent his disciples over to Jesus to follow him as “Lamb of God.” This week, we hear Mark relating to us the traditional call around the Sea of Galilee to the fishermen brothers Simon and Andrew: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
I would suppose they were not really looking for another trade. These were business men essentially who were trying to carve out a living in a common trade along the Sea of Galilee and likely were doing well by ancient standards. But we know that Jesus’ call was not to a job as such but to a whole new way of life.
What amazes us often is how they responded: “So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.” Can’t we just hear Dad saying: “Hey, where are you going? What about all these fish?” Some brief history may help to understand.
Jesus came preaching in what appears to be the same theme as John the Baptist but with one important difference. He did not point the way to another but to himself: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” The time is now and is here with me. So, his call was both immediate and unique.
Since news traveled fast in the ancient world primarily by word of mouth, gossip as it were, it’s likely these fishermen heard about Jesus already. Preachers were common in ancient times and Jewish sensibility was tuned in to end times prophecy. The coming of God in power was in the air and Jesus picked up on this in a very real way. Remember that Jesus had moved down to Capernaum by the Sea in a very different environment than tiny Nazareth and his reputation by now had spread. So, were Andrew, Simon and the others strangers to Jesus or did they at least have some first-hand experience of him already? That is very possible. But now, Jesus begins to form a kind of band of
followers. He calls them from fishing and they are ready to accept the invitation to what may eventually lead to the overthrow of Rome which they may have thought was the grievance Jesus wanted to address with their help. It’s probably best to not romanticize this call too much since it would deny the impact of Jesus’ true intention as he called these men away from their old way of life to something far more impacting – Apostles of the Good News of Salvation.
The bottom line, as it strikes me in this, is the invitation. Jesus went to them and invited them to gather with him to be “fishers of men.” Obviously that is “men” with a universal implication to all humanity – male and female alike. What Jesus was planning was a new society, a new vision of God and unity for humankind. “Repent” as Jesus demands, means to turn around and begin to think differently and to live differently in his way. God is about to “break through a new world” as Bishop Barron puts it so well.
To gather all together as one under his leadership and to bring about a moral and spiritual freedom that would create a new society – his Church. God was among his people and his kingdom would be established as a proposition to humanity brought about not through violence, force, or financial gain but through love, peace, equality, dignity and selfless service after his own example with God at the center of all. God will be the ultimate focal point and the one who can be truly faithful and life-giving.
In the first reading Jonah, the reluctant prophet, is called to preach repentance to the sinful Ninevites. Jonah resisted at first, remember the story of the fish that swallowed him, and now he preaches a warning to the Ninevites. God relents of his punishments as the Ninevites call for repentance and “. . . (God) repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.” God’s call is universal and his true desire is not to destroy but to offer life, to show mercy and this same theme is at the heart of Jesus ‘ call to these early disciples.
In our Gospel this call of Jesus is more universal than specific in nature. In other words, at this moment Jesus was not calling Andrew, Simon Peter and the rest to specifically be Apostolic missionaries of the Good News but his call is more fundamental; the same that we all share in: to discipleship, to holiness, to be missionary disciples of the Good news of Christ; each in our own unique way of life. We are invited into the process of conversion that our lives be formed by the Gospel values and to be his light in the world today.
Our vocations are the way in which I am Christian and our "jobs" are what I do to make money but the call is lived out in each. How can I as a member of the clergy or an educator be a missionary disciple in my profession? How can I as a husband, wife, attorney, doctor or health care provider, retail business person, real estate agent, financial adviser, or in countless other ways we are occupied be a missionary disciple of the Lord? We’ve all been invited to follow; we’ve all been asked to leave the old way behind. I don’t have to stop doing what I do in my occupation but I need to do it in light of Christ Jesus. What’s holding me back from giving more to Christ?
Our first task as I see it is to come to know the Lord Jesus in and through the life of his Church. From here we go out with the sacramental grace necessary to be authentic in what we say we are. Conversion is ultimately God’s operation through his grace. Any “success” we experience in our lives is the result of his work in and through us or beyond us. But to be invited into the new way of Christ is to share in a world that is being changed or “passing away” as Paul reminds his Corinthian Christians in our second reading. By Christ’s death and resurrection all things are being conformed to the Father’s desire yet in God’s time not according to our personal schedule indeed.
So, by the grace of the Eucharist, let us be more conformed to Him. Jesus calls to all of us: “Come after me . . .” (put your name in those dots and see where it leads you).