“Come: follow me”, said the LORD.
“I will make you fishers of
men.”
(Benedictus antiphon for the 3rd
Sunday of the Year)
“At once, they left
their nets and followed Him.”
(Mk 1:18 )
That was Peter and Andrew. A
little later, He called James and John the sons of Zebedee, “…and leaving their
father Zebedee in the boat … they went after Him” (Mk 1:20 ).
Jesus hadn’t worked any miracles when He called these young men – they
had been disciples of John the Baptist, at least James, John and Andrew were;
and they had heard John [the Baptist] say wonderful things about Jesus.
“He will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Mt 3:11 ). So, when He called them, they jumped to
answer. Their time with John the Baptist
was a preparation – a Novitiate of sorts – and they were ready.
‘Readiness is everything.’
Jesus’ call is imperative! Think
of Matthew the tax collector. He would
have heard Jesus preaching to the people on the seashore and seen His miracles. He must have longed to follow Him, but felt
utterly unworthy as a despised tax collector.
Jesus passes by and says, ‘Follow me’ and Matthew straightaway jumps to
follow Him.
Today we also have the Feast of the
Conversion of St Paul
Here was Saul – a highly educated Pharisee, determined to put an end to this
movement which seemed to him heretical.
He had encouraged the killers of Stephen and had gone on to imprison men
and women “followers of the Way” (cf Acts 9:1-3 ). And
now he was on the way to Damascus
to catch the frightened followers there.
Ah! But wait, Saul!
The Church in Jerusalem, gathered around Mary, is praying.
I can imagine the disciples saying, ‘Let’s ask God to remove that Saul,
before he destroys us all,’ and Mary saying, ‘No. Let’s ask God to change his heart from hatred
to love.’
As Saul reached Damascus ,
Jesus appears in a great light.
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you, Lord?”
“I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me.”
And what a change of heart came to Saul!
He became one of the greatest lovers of Christ.
‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
peril, or sword?’ (Rom 8:35 )
No! We
come through all these things triumphantly victorious by the power of Him who
loves us, he tells us in his letter to the Romans.
It was the prayer of Mary and those first
Christians gathered around her that brought about the change in “Saul, to Paul
the greatest apostle of them all.”
Let us gather around her now
and pray for a change of heart in our leaders
who are trying to undermine the teaching of
Jesus.
.JPG)
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