The Call of the Lord

On this weekend a number of years ago, I was at morning mass and during the homily someone’s phone started to ring. The man frantically searched for his phone, searching his coat to finally turn it off.  When he finally did, the priest turned toward him and said, “You better hope that wasn’t God calling you, or else you are going to have one angry voicemail!”

In todays Gospel Jesus calls four of his twelve disciples.  We here in Matthews account today, of Jesus approaching them while they work away, living their ordinary lives. Although familiar to us, it would have been rather peculiar to a Jewish person who would have read this Gospel, or to the Jews themselves.  In the Jewish tradition disciples sought out a teacher, but today the teacher searches for his disciples. Jesus finds these fishermen  and called them to a radical new life where they will become fishers of people. These fishermen, attracted by the invitation,  drop everything and immediately follow him.

This is the nature of Christ. Christ calls us from wherever we are in life; he meets us there– even in our darkest, saddest, loneliest moments. He comes to us, calls us by name and asks us to follow him. He asks of us to start a new way of life, to come and walk in his magnificent light. He then reveals to us the immensity of his love and the extravagant joy in his gift of salvation.  He reveals to us the divine nature of selflessness and a life lived for others. In calling us by name, Jesus calls us to share that light, the gift of salvation he has given us with every single person around us.

This weekend is the first weekend of the Word of God. Pope Francis established it to be celebrated on the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time every year so that we can all dedicate ourselves again to living out the scriptures. As Catholics, the bible is our story. It is where we find, especially in the Gospels, the roots our faith. We are not a religion of mere nice sayings and philosophy. No. We are a religion based on a God who lived and continues to live, who initiates again and again a relationship with his people, and who calls us to a new way of life. We are a religion based on a radical call. A call from a loving God who calls us to a new life.

The call of Christ, is a call that calls us to become better people and to make a better world. It is a call that does not stand for the status-quo, but requires us to shake things up, to break the standards of society, to be open to the spirit which leads us. This calling is a calling which asks of us to be saints. It is a calling which ultimately leads to the cross, but with a promise of eternal life. Today, may we be open to hearing the call of our creator, and answer his call, with the same urgency as the disciples, so that we to will not have an angry voicemail waiting for us.