You remember that scene in the Gospels: Jesus walking among bustling crowds along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where there's a thriving fishing community. Peter and Andrew are hard at work on the shore, casting their nets into the sea (fishermen are still casting their nets there to this day.) James and John are working in their father's boat. The four men know each other well; Luke's Gospel tells us that James and John were business partners with Peter.
These are four men whose lives are successful and settled. Their families have probably lived and fished on the shores of Galilee for generations. Fishing in Galilee was often profitable and these men have family businesses, with James and John expecting, as a matter of duty, to take over their father's business. They have families. Peter is either married or a widower taking care of his mother-in-law.
And, on this fateful day, along comes Jesus. He strides up to Peter and Andrew and then James and John, singling these four out from all the busy workers around them. He gives them all the same command:
"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people."
Yes, it's a command. No "please won't you consider following me" from Jesus!
He commands us as well. Follow me. Follow God, not people. Follow me instead of all those trendy celebrities, those people who think earthly success is more important than saving their souls and others' souls, who spend their time and money on possessions and pleasure instead of on prayer.
Now Jesus is a Rabbi, a Teacher. In the Rabbinical tradition, Rabbis didn't call followers; instead, the followers sought out the teachers and asked if they could be their followers. But, importantly, Jesus the Teacher seeks out these particular men in the midst of a crowd of busy fishermen and calls them.
Just as He seeks us out and chooses us in the middle of crowds of busy people. Faith is a gift; not everyone's been given the gift of faith in Jesus. We hold a treasure; do we recognize the treasure that our faith is? Do we listen to the Rabbi, the Teacher, who calls us so he can teach us his Way?
Jesus says "Follow me." He calls these four, a close-knit group, to leave their busy, settled lives and come and live with him, share his life. And he tells them that he will make them fishers of people, using a verb for "make" which is the root for "poem" and "poetry." As Scripture scholar Fr. James Martin, S.J., says "After calling them into relationship with him, Jesus will 'make' or fashion his disciples into something new and beautiful." (quoted from "Jesus: A Pilgrimage.")
That phrase "fishing for people" does not appear anywhere in the Old Testament; it's a completely original turn of phrase that Jesus uses, and maybe humorously, playfully he teases professional fishermen by saying they will fish for people instead! He's tailored his message to his audience!
And the call isn't to each of them simply to save their souls. He calls them to work, to service, to compassion, to healing the hurting.
Just as he calls us to help him care for others. Following Jesus' call is not just a "me and Jesus" call, - ever.
What does he tell each of us? How does he call us? No matter what work we're in, whether we're teachers, nurses, stay-at-home Moms, in the service, carpenters, salesmen, librarians - whatever we do, Jesus our Teacher is calling us to use our talents and our vocations and our jobs as vehicles to bring people to him. To follow him "on the road" - our own individual road - even as his disciples did. Immediately.
Because we're told "And immediately they left their nets and followed him." They leave their profession. Leave their families and friends. Enter a life of wandering across the country with him. Enduring exhaustion, large, demanding crowds, the stress of persecution by their religious leaders, and no permanent address.
Why? Maybe they've heard of him by the time they meet him. Maybe some know of him because of his cousin John the Baptist. Maybe, like many Jews of the time, they were awaiting a Messiah and had already heard of miracles he's performed. The point is, they are ready. He comes to them at the precise point in their lives when they are ready for him.
They are ready for his magnetic, all-embracing personality to capture them so completely that they allow him to upend their lives and they accept his invitation to follow him into an uncertain future.
After all, as Fr. Martin says, he doesn't tell them HOW they are going to become fishers of people!
Jesus calls us and calls us again and again to follow him in ways that will upend our lives if we are attentive to his ongoing call. He invites us into an uncertain future, a future of growth in love and sacrifice, of being stretched into doing things we never thought we were capable of doing. We walk into the shadow of his cross and know our own cross will descend on our shoulders one day. For all his apostles except for John eventually were put to death for refusing to deny His Name.
Maybe we fight his call for months or years. St. Augustine, for example drifted from one belief system to another, to one love affair after another, fleeing the call of Christ for years. He even said "Lord, make me chaste, but not yet."
Then, once he embraced Jesus, the Love of his life, he said in joy "Thou has created us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."
Yes, we have restless hearts until we answer the call of Jesus and follow him faithfully on his Way to transcendent love and eternal life in Him.