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Reading: www.nccbuscc.org/nab/113007.shtml
One word leaps out of today's gospel story: "Immediately." The story is about the call of the so-called "first disciples"--two sets of brothers, four fishermen: Simon Peter and Andrew, John and James. Matthew tells the story simply: Jesus walks by the sea--purposelessly, it seems--and chances upon the unsuspecting men. Quite out of the blue--again it seems--he invites them, and "at once" Simon and Andrew leave their boats. And not much later, James and John leave their nets--"immediately."
There is nothing "immediate" about our own attempts at following Jesus. It's simply too tough and complicated to follow him in a world that's increasingly hostile or inhospitable to one who wants to be a disciple. So can we be blamed if we compromise, postpone, and sometimes even give up trying? And if we're still trying, we soon realize--to our dismay--that the most we can do is stumble after the Lord, never quite making the grade. So when I think of the disciples' immediate response to Jesus, a question I can't help but ask myself is: "Can I do that?"
According to author Barbara Brown Taylor, the word "immediate" in the gospel almost always signals a miracle story. And she's right: the way the first disciples abandoned their former lives to follow our Lord required nothing short of a miracle, a miracle that happens out of nowhere and in the "midst of things," as they were quietly going about their lives.
The Lord knows we too need nothing short of a miracle in our lives to follow him. Maybe if we pray for it, that miracle will happen today: Out of nowhere, in the midst of things, we might feel that burning in our hearts and just for once--at once and immediately--we might find the needed strength and courage to leave our past life and begin again stumbling after his shadow.
Let's you and I pray for that miracle today.
(image: rumkatkilise.org)
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