Today we begin a semi-continuous reading of Matthew, as Jesus settles in Carpernaum and begins to call his disciples. Without being there ourselves, we can often boil the life of Jesus down to the basic Gospel accounts, as that is all we have. But there would have been much normality, much hum-drum to Jesus’s life, too. We can imagine him settling into the area, finding places to eat, meeting new people and learning more about the specifics of the location. We might even chance to wonder where he slept, where he called home.
It’s quite possible that Jesus was doing all this when he saw Simon and Andrew. Those first disciples probably won’t have known who he was, but there was something engaging about him, something exceptional that they were not willing to overlook. Indeed, by the end of a short conversation they had made the decision to completely change their lives and follow Jesus.
Jesus’s words, teachings and actions changed people’s lives and turned worlds of understanding on their heads. But he is also fully human, and the humanity he showed flabbergasted those who came into contact with him. He was possesed with extraordinary empathy, and this was apparent throughout the Gospels.
It is Christ’s deeply human identity that we most of all have the need to emulate. Whilst some may concentrate on his miracles or his deep asceticism, none of it is of any use if we do not seek to develop the beautiful humanity of Christ in our own hearts. It is this that intoxicated the first disciples and led them into a new life, a life of which we are the children.
The way that we develop it is by doing exactly what Jesus did, which is to have empathy with our sisters and brothers, to love those we come into contact with, to meet them on their level and to have dialogue and encounter at the heart of human relationships. None of this is easy. It can hurt, truly hurt, to give dignity to people when we feel they don’t warrant it. But all humanity warrants dignity, all warrants love, regardless of any other factor. Jesus is the exemplar of this, appealing as he did to the very outcasts of society.
As we live our hum-drum lives, shopping, working, resting, socialising, we, too, can be the disciples of Jesus. We can follow him in a new and dynamic way. All of us are called to be disciples and, through Jesus’s example and that of the first disciples, we pray for the grace to stay on that narrow road and seek his presence in all things. Amen.
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew (4:12-23)
Glory to you, O Lord.
Hearing that John had been arrested Jesus went back to Galilee, and leaving Nazareth he went and settled in Capernaum, a lakeside town on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali. In this way the prophecy of Isaiah was to be fulfilled:
‘Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali! Way of the sea on the far side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations!
The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light;
on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned.’
From that moment Jesus began his preaching with the message,
‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast in the lake with their net, for they were fishermen. And he said to them,
‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.‘
And they left their nets at once and followed him.
Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. At once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.
Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. At once leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.
He went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogue proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds diseases and sickness among the people.
The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ