Gospel of Matthew 4:23

Experience is the best teacher. We all know this. We know that experiences pile up as the years add up. So, we naturally are inclined to look to older friends and family members, whose experience vastly outstrips ours, for advice and direction. We find in these people clarity coupled with a kind of mellowness. They have journeyed farther than we have, and they know. The church too, learns from those who have seen and who know. The Old Testament and the New Testament stand as our witness to God’s life among us. These privileged Testaments tell the story of humanity’s awakening to God’s action in our midst.

God’s gracious call asks our response. Responding is difficult, for we realize that we may be led where we do not choose to go. We may stumble as children who are learning, but God always urges us along-teaching us, seeking us out, and sometimes finding us out. Our experience merges with the great experience of the people of Israel and the early witness to the risen Lord. The scriptures and our long tradition assure us that all is well and all will be well for those who answer the Lord’s call.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls His disciples – Peter, James and John to follow Him. They left what they were doing and followed Him, becoming “fishers of men.” These ordinary fisherman abandoned their old ways; their old lifestyles; to follow Christ and to take on a new kind of fishing; namely to spread the good news of the gospel everywhere.

Today’s gospel shows us that we are called to follow the Lord and to keep our hearts open, like the first disciples. When our hearts tend to crust over and toughen up, we are called to attention again by the Lord who calls us to be “fishers of men;” to cast our bread upon the waters; to spread His word, and to love one another as He has loved us.

Fr. Hugh Duffy