Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle

As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

It sounds so easy for Peter, Andrew, James, and John to leave everything behind and follow Jesus, but how many of us would do the same? We have so many responsibilities, doubts, fears, and distractions that it’s almost impossible to think of leaving them all behind and starting over with Christ. However, sometimes in our lives God calls us to move out of our comfort zones and leave everything we known in order to do His Will. We can always deny Jesus by claiming we already do this or that, or have too much on our plates, or make some other excuse to keep ourselves from being led to where we do not want to go. These moments of selfishness tempt us away from God’s Divine Plan. We must recognize that in order to be true disciples of Christ, we need to be willing to follow him away from everything we know and hold dear. We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves. Otherwise we will never reach our full potential as Christians and we will be the lesser for it.

What is keeping us from following Jesus? Are we willing to sacrifice ourselves for God and His children? How are we preparing ourselves to be fishers of men?

O Lord, give us the grace to leave everything and follow you.

Amen.