Listen To The Call !

As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.

Today is the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle. He was Peter's older brother and very close to Jesus.  He was called from his vocation as a fisherman to become a fisher of men. He went on to teach and preach in the Black Sea area including Georgia and Romania. He was martyred by being crucified on an "X" shaped cross, the exact date is not known but it is believed he died in the mid to late first century AD. 

I have always found it amazing that when the apostles were called, that they dropped everything and followed Jesus. You have to wonder as well why Jesus picked these twelve very ordinary men?  Today we advertise an open position and collect resumes, interview acceptable candidates once, twice, and maybe even three times. We meet with our supervisors and discuss the applicants and decide on the one that absolutely most closely fits the position. This is not how Jesus operated. You would think that he would have scoured the temple and picked the wisest of the teachers and rabbis that he could find there.  But no, he picked fisherman and even a tax collector and he picked one man that he knew would betray him. He started with a team that was first of all pious.  They would have been men that followed their religion.  They would have been trained by their fathers in the ways of Yahweh and the Law.  But formal training, the kind that the leaders of the temple would have had, would not be for them.  So, Jesus would have a team of men with what we might term as an eighth-grade education, they would know just enough to keep themselves out of trouble.  Jesus was starting with a blank canvas and through the next three years what beautiful works he would make of these twelve ordinary people of the earth.  One canvas, no less beautiful than the others, would become torn when he betrayed the Lord, but even this was planned for and expected. 

We too are called by Jesus and once again he could have chosen another, wiser, smarter, better-looking person than you or I but he didn't.  Just as He did with the twelve he chose us because of who we are and not because of what we know or who we knew or what levels of education we had.  Some of us would be better schooled than others, but some of the others would have gifts and talents that could not be acquired in any school and He would use them too.  Our calling to be a fisher of men has been issued just as it was to the first twelve.  We must open our ears to hear the call.  We must also train our hearing to drown out the siren call of sin which could drive us into the rocks and sink us.  We must open our hearts to the call of the Lord.  There is no purpose on earth greater than to be a disciple of Jesus and to work for the kingdom.  There is no job that pays better or has better benefits or a better retirement plan!  We can start small.  Small is okay because being kind to another sometimes is the way people are led to Christ.  Preach with your actions before you preach using words.  Be of good cheer in all of the circumstances you find yourself in, as hard as that is to do, remembering that the things of this world are passing and temporary while our place in heaven will be forever. 

To Do Today:  Pray for the poor souls in Purgatory.