The calling of the first disciples is a story we know well, so well that
we may have tuned it out when we heard it. But what if we try to hear
the story as if for the first time?We might be surprised at what we
hear. God’s Word has that kind of power.
But I admit that there doesn’t seem to be much
room for surprise here. The story is quite straightforward. It’s a
story about four fishermen who answer a call, and who, in doing so,
leave everything behind. But a closer look reveals that, in those
few verses from Matthew’s gospel, it is five people, not four, who leave
everything behind. Peter and Andrew leave their nets to follow
Jesus, and James and John leave their boats and their father to follow
Jesus. But did you catch the fifth person to leave everything behind?
You had to be listening carefully. So, just in case you missed it,
listen again. The passage began with these words: “Jesus left Nazareth
and went to live in Capernaum by the sea.”
“Jesus left Nazareth.” Jesus is the other
one – the first one, really – in that brief gospel passage to leave
everything behind. Jesus left Nazareth, and for him, leaving
Nazareth was not just a physical move - a move of a few miles from
Nazareth, which is up in the hills, to Capernaum which is down on the
lake shore. No, for Jesus, leaving Nazareth meant leaving home and
family. It meant leaving behind all that was safe and comfortable.
It meant breaking out of the cocoon, if you will: flying free, moving
into the great unknown, setting out on the mission for which he had
come.
And what prompted him to do this? Matthew
simply says that “when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been
arrested…he left Nazareth.” It seems that John’s arrest – his
silencing – told Jesus that he could be silent no longer, that it was
now time for him to take up where John had left off. And so he
left home and began his ministry, and when he did, he sounded a lot like
John the Baptist. In fact, his message was almost identical to John’s:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
So, that’s the first thing. Jesus left
Nazareth. If we understand the meaning of that, we will better
understand why Jesus was able to call others to leave their homes.
Jesus first left behind all that was comfortable, safe and secure for
him before he ever presumed to ask Peter and Andrew, James and John to
leave behind all that was comfortable, safe and secure for them.
They did what he did. Jesus left Nazareth behind, they left behind their
boats, their nets, their homes, their families, their way of life.
I don’t know about you, but I find it
reassuring that Jesus didn’t demand anything of his followers that he
didn’t first demand of himself. He still doesn’t. And that
can be a comforting thought when we are faced with a tough decision in
life – a vocational decision, maybe, or a career move, or a decision to
finally leave an unhealthy relationship - any time God is calling us to
move beyond our comfort zone and risk taking a step into the unknown. Or
on the larger scene, maybe the tough decision God is calling us to make
has to do with taking the Gospel of Life really seriously to the point
of getting involved in issues like care for the environment, or
advocating for refugees and asylum-seekers, or for life in the womb, or
opposing societal evils such as racism, nationalism, homophobia. God has
many ways of calling us to move beyond our comfort zone and doing so is
never easy – no easier than it was for Jesus or for the first disciples.
I spoke earlier of hearing this passage as if
for the first time. Something else caught my attention as I did
that: it was the words “at once” and “immediately.” “At once they
left their nets and followed him…. Immediately they left their
boat and their father and followed him.” That’s a very surprising
response, if you think about it. It’s one thing to leave behind
everything you know and love, but to do so at once? Immediately?
Would you make a life decision that quickly? Would I?
To be honest, no! But those disciples did.
I sometimes wonder what it was about Jesus that
prompted such a response. Was it his appearance, his physical bearing,
the holiness that radiated from him? I’m sure it was, but it must have
also been the power – the dynamic, persuasive power – of the Word that
Jesus spoke with such authority. Jesus, after all, was God’s own Word in
human flesh. Every word he spoke had power – much like the Genesis Word
that God spoke at the very beginning, sparking life, bringing the
created universe out of nothing. This seems a particularly fitting
thought on this Sunday that Pope Francis has set aside to celebrate and
highlight the power of the Word of God….
It is that same powerful Word that spoke to
saints down through the ages, causing them, when they heard it, to do
like the first disciples and give their lives completely over to Christ.
I think of St. Francis of Assisi who heard Christ speak to him while he
was praying before a crucifix in a rundown church, and of St. Catherine
of Siena and St. Therese of Lisieux, who heard and answered the call of
Christ when they were very young girls; and of St. Ignatius Loyola who
heard the call as a young man with many things besides Jesus on his
mind.
My friends, the Word of God, the call of God,
is clothed in mystery, the mystery of grace, and so is the response. All
we know is that when Jesus called his disciples, they left everything -
at once - and followed him. And the same is true for those saints
I mentioned, and for countless saints down through the ages. Oh, and
there’s one more thing we know. It’s this: The Word is still being
spoken. God is still calling. God is still calling!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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