Ready For Adventure

This weekend the Church gives us yet another chance to say “Yes” to Jesus. We are near the beginning of the Gospel According to Matthew which will lead us through the thirty-four weeks of Ordinary Time. Jesus has been baptized by John, then the Spirit led him into the desert where he resisted the devil’s temptations for forty days. Then in today’s gospel, Jesus begins his public ministry. His first words are, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17). Then he calls His first four disciples on an adventure.

He comes to meet them where they are, by the Sea of Galilee while they are fishing. Then he calls them into his adventure. “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (4:19). At once they left their nets, their boats and their father and followed him. They probably never imagined this adventure would last for three years and beyond. They may have only thought they were leaving their nets for a day or two, the kind of adventure children have with their friends. Jesus invited them to join him that day, and they took it one day at a time.

Bishop Robert Barron puts this scene into its broad perspective: 

“Somehow [this scene] gets at the very heart of Jesus’ life and work, revealing what He is about. He comes into the world as the second person of the Blessed Trinity, a representative from the community that is God—and thus His basic purpose is to draw the world into community around him… ‘Follow me,’ Jesus says. He is not offering a doctrine, a theology, or a set of beliefs. He is offering himself. It’s as if he’s saying ‘Walk in my path; walk in imitation of me’” (The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels, p. 44). 

This invitation is for all of us today. We can begin a new adventure with Jesus this year. No matter how old you are or how long you have been following him, Jesus is inviting you to follow him one day at a time into something new. It may not be a major life-changing event; it may be just a new insight, a new perspective, a new grace, a new hope. Are you open to following Jesus into something new today? 

St. Augustine addressed God as, “O Beauty ever ancient, ever new.” Although God is ancient, he is also “ever new.” And he never ceases to call us into his eternal newness. But we must hear his call in prayer, then trust him and follow him. Bishop Barron points out that Jesus has a plan for each of us that is better than we can imagine:

“Jesus explains, ‘I will make you fish for people.’ … Notice the first part of the phrase: ‘I will make you.’ This is counter to the culture’s prevailing view that we’re self-made, that we invent and define our own reality. Jesus puts this lie to bed. We learn from him that it’s God who acts, and if we give ourselves to his creative power, he will make us into something far better that we ever could” (Baron, ibid.).

Today let Jesus meet you where you are with his creative power. He is inviting you into the life of the Holy Trinity which is ever new. Imagine, a never-ending adventure in the love of God! Just say “Yes” and trust him one day at a time.