May Jesus Christ be
praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.
The message was
simple. The invitation was clear. The response was immediate.
After his baptism by
John and after the time of temptation in the desert, the Lord Jesus began his
public ministry. John the Baptist had
been imprisoned by Herod and the days of his preaching had come to an end. Now the Lord Jesus preached the same simple
message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In the place where the Lord had promised,
through the prophet Isaiah, to reveal himself and to be a great light for the
people who sat in darkness, the Lord Jesus began to preach. The message was simple. It was a call to conversion. It was a call to walk in the way of the Lord
Jesus.
The message that Paul
proclaimed was simple as well. Writing
to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul warned against divisions and proclaimed
the message of unity in Christ Jesus.
Saint Paul echoes the prayer of the Lord Jesus, that all may be
one. We have just concluded the Week of
Prayer for Christian Unity. This week
has been celebrated for over a century between the eighteenth and the
twenty-fifth of January. It is a time
for all of the followers of the Lord Jesus to pray, in a particular way, for
the unity of all Christians. The Second
Vatican Council addressed the issue of Christian unity as one of its chief
concerns. The Council, however, before
it addressed issues of dialogues or common projects or common prayers, invited
all Catholics to deepen our relationship with Christ and his Church, so that we
might grow in holiness and be authentic witnesses of the Gospel. The message was simple. It was a call to conversion. It was a call to walk in the way of the Lord
Jesus.
When the Lord Jesus
walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers. Casting their nets into the sea, for they
were fishermen, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew heard the words that Jesus
addressed to them. “Come after me, and I
will make you fishers of men.” In the
midst of their ordinary work, Jesus called them. For James, the son of Zebedee and his brother
John, the call of the Lord Jesus came to them as they were mending their nets
in the boat with their father. In the
midst of their ordinary work, Jesus called them. The invitation to follow Jesus was
clear. Each day, in the midst of our
ordinary work, being faithful to the duties of our particular vocation, the
Lord Jesus calls each of us to follow him.
We are called each day to follow the path of conversion. We are called each day to grow in our love
for God and our love for our neighbor.
The invitation to follow Jesus is clear.
When Peter and Andrew, James and John heard the call of Christ to
follow him, their response was immediate.
They did not stop to count the cost of discipleship. They did not even ask how they would benefit
from following Jesus. Encountering the
person of the Lord Jesus and clearly hearing his call, Peter and Andrew left
their nets and they followed Jesus.
James and John left not only their nets, not only their livelihood, but
they left their father as well. They left
the comfort of their careers and their family to follow the Lord Jesus. Nothing could be more important that
answering the call. Nothing could be
more important than responding immediately to the invitation of the Lord
Jesus. The Lord Jesus may not call us to
leave our professions and our families to follow him. For most of the disciples of the Lord, you
are called to follow him in the midst of your work and your family life. The call might be different, but our response
can be just as profound. Our response to
the call of Christ can be just as immediate.
As we celebrate this Eucharist, we ask the Lord for the grace to hear
his call to conversion each day. We pray
for the unity of all of the followers of the Lord Jesus in the Church which he
founded. And we ask for the grace to
follow the example of those early disciples and respond immediately to the
invitation of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Preached
at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
