At the Seven Springs, because of the loving, magnetic gaze and words of Jesus, who was making his base in nearby Capernaum, Peter and Andrew, James and John, decided to throw away the lives they'd known and built and follow Jesus into a new, unknown future. Fr. James Martin, S.J., making a pilgrimage in the Holy Land, surrounded by crowds at the Seven Springs, thought of this scene - Jesus and the four fishermen - as he dipped his fingers into the water and made the Sign of the Cross. After all, these four by choosing to follow Jesus, chose to eventually embrace the cross.
Why did they say "yes" to the call of Jesus? They would not have been impelled by fear. Fear would have made them put their hands over their ears and turn their backs on him! After all, the brothers James and John were being dutiful sons, ready to take over their father's fishing business. Brothers Peter and Andrew were "growing" their own business. Fear of change and losing so much, so many commitments, would have made them choose to remain fishermen.
Fr. Martin, in his book "Jesus A Pilgrimage," says that they chose to answer Jesus' call because they were waiting for the Messiah, may even have heard of Jesus, or knew him as their neighbor in Capernaum, and were swept away by Jesus' powerful personality which cast out fear. Most of all, they were ready for something new. He adds
"The ancient Greeks had two words for time: 'chronos,' the tick-tock chronological time that we are familiar with; and 'kairos,' the right, or opportune moment. We know what these 'kairos' moments are like: tired and dissatisfied with our lives, we're waiting for someone to say that it is ok to change. For the fishermen on the shore, this was their 'kairos' moment."
I would add that it is my belief that love also impels us to reach a 'kairos' moment: love for ourselves, and, often enough, love for the God Who calls us to change. For the Changeless One Who stands outside of time is the One continually calling us to change and change again to become more like Him: rich in compassion and mercy. The fishermen who follow Jesus in their kairos moment are on the road to becoming men on fire with love, enough fire to stride across their land to preach, heal, and eventually die for love.
God calls us through "kairos" moments over and over again in our lives, asking us to become more and more of who we are meant to be, asking us to turn away from fear, to "drop the nets that entangle us in our old ways of doing things, ways that no longer are healthy for us, ways that keep us from being more loving." (Martin.)
Jesus' call always promises us something new. The Venerable Mother Teresa (1910-1997), an ethnic Albanian, struggled first with a call from Jesus to a radically new life: to become a missionary. At the age of eighteen, she entered the Order of the Sisters of Loreto and traveled to India, where she became a teacher and then a Principal of a school for children in Calcutta. She never saw her family again.
Years later, she received what she later described as a "call within a call." She had become increasingly disturbed by India's poverty and violence. While traveling by train from Calcutta to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat she heard a distinct call from God: "I was to leave the convent," she said later, "and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith." The call catapulted her change from "Sister Teresa" to "Mother Teresa."
She began her missionary work with the poor by replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border, adopting Indian citizenship, and receiving basic medical training at Holy Family Hospital in Calcutta. Then she ventured out into the slums, a life change that would result in her founding the Missionaries of Charity, now active in over one hundred countries, to "fish for people" by serving the poorest of the poor, whom she named as "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to society or are shunned by everyone." She challenges us to follow the call of Jesus Who is Alive Now, to see His Face Now where no one else is looking.
Fr. Martin also reminds us that there are two main ways of looking at Jesus - the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith: "It's important to know all that we can about the historical person who called Peter, Andrew, James, and John. But it's also important to be open to the ways Jesus calls us today. It is not enough simply to know what Jesus said by the Sea of Galilee. We must also be ready to hear his voice in our own lives. We must be receptive to the ways that God calls us - today, tomorrow, or ten years from now - so when we hear God say, 'Follow Me,' we will be ready to drop our nets. And follow."
Jesus' call is usually subtle. In the voice of a friend. In a T.V. program. In a challenging, even captivating experience. It's not unusual to be fearful when God throws us a curve ball and invites us to change our lives. But Perfect Love casts out fear.
Mother Teresa reminds us to follow Jesus out of love, knowing that His call will lead us to ever-deeper love:
" I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, He will not ask 'How many good things have you done in your life?' Rather, He will ask 'How much love did you put into what you did?'"