My brothers and sisters in Christ: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Jesus approaches his first disciples, Simon and Andrew, with an interesting proposition: leave your fishing nets and lives by the sea and turn your attention toward catching people in the net of God’s love. In some ways, calling fishermen to his work seems like an odd choice and yet skills needed for catching fish (patience, perseverance, hard work, ability to weather storms) would likely come in handy when fishing for people.
Within the Gospel, Jesus chooses ordinary people with everyday occupations to be his closet collaborators. Through they were not the obvious choices for founding this church, in following Jesus the disciples gained the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to carry forth Jesus’s mission after his death and resurrection.
Today, Jesus continues to call ordinary, everyday people to be “fishers of men.” How will you respond.