Jesus Tells His First Disciples: “Come After Me, and I will Make You Fishers of Men.”

I can easily imagine James and John asking: “What have we signed up for here?” Last week, John the Baptist pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God. Andrew, Peter and others were the first followers, disciples of Jesus. Today, we learn from St. Mark, who was St. Peter’s scribe, that “After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee” to begin His ministry of announcing the Kingdom of God. There was a transition from these disciples following John the Baptist to following Jesus. In other words, the disciples already knew who Jesus was and Jesus was aware of them.

By comparing St. John and St. Mark’s gospel accounts of these first disciples, it did not start there and then by the shore. By all accounts, Andrew was a follower of St. John the Baptist first. There was a previous connection. Now, it was time for them to follow a new teacher.

It’s All About Putting God First: You have to put God first in your life.

Otherwise, if you don’t, you will invariably put God last. There will always be something that will tempt us take the place of God. Let’s call them false gods. I understand that we are all not like Peter and Andrew, James and John, that is, we are not all called directly by the Lord to follow Him by leaving boats and nets, but we all are called to follow the Lord in our daily lives and to put him first in our lives.

The Process of Conversion and Discipleship Conversion is a process.

It begins at Baptism and grows as we grow and, as we live the faith, we are asked to make the connections, to see the bigger picture that God is painting for us. It may be more difficult for us to abandon our nets, so to speak, but it does remind us that we need to make changes in our lives if we are going to follow Jesus.

Simon and Andrew, and then James and John, were common men, without any religious or theological knowledge or authority, nor did they have any special status in the world.

“Most of us are similar. Jesus did not select them (or us) for who they were. He called them for what He could do through them. It is the same with each of us. Yes, we are called, but in order to really fulfill our calling we need to follow and trust in Jesus.

“Finally, the Gospel of Mark relates a story very familiar to us when the Lord calls His first Apostles to “come after me.” This is in effect the calling heard by Jonah.

“When Jesus says “Repent” it may not mean quite what we think it does. The Lord is not telling us to just feel sorry. He is calling us to action. That involves conversion, a change in how we live and what we do. Repentance is a change of direction. Also, it is not something we do before we come to God and answer His call. It is telling us what coming to God is like, what it requires.”(https://catholicsteward.com).

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We Will Celebrate Candlemas at 6:00pm on Friday, February 2, The Feast of the Presentation of The Lord.

You may bring new candles for blessing at this special Mass, which is a beautiful Church tradition.

Fr. Kilian, Fr. Williams, our Deacons and all of our great Parish Staff

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