"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."
The Gospel for today's feast from St. Matthew begins:
"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."
The "at once" is what strikes me. It is rather startling to think that they would leave just like that, but then, when Jesus calls, we also must learn to respond at once if we are to follow him.
Obviously, this Feast does not always fall in Advent. A fact that I remember because my parents told me they were married on this Feast just before Advent began. However, I think the immediate response is something that we are asked to consider in Advent since we are to "be prepared" and "stay awake."
I was struck by something said in the homily on Sunday. It seems that to have the real Advent spirit, we need to remember how we spent the weeks before Christmas longing for it to come, counting the days and doing all we could to prepare for good behavior because Santa was coming --have we the same desire, the longing, for the coming of the Lord? I hope so. I read something this morning that has helped me today. It was about connecting our need to drink water with the Living Water flowing from the Heart of Christ. I thought of this each time I drank water today and linked it with a desire for the coming of Christ again into our hearts and our world which has such need of Him.
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