There are some weeks when putting together my thoughts for this weekly column is so easy; however, this past week was not one of those weeks. With the on-going stress of the pandemic, the challenges in our own country, the concerns of the Diocese and the daily challenges of keeping a parish and school going, I hadn’t had much time to think about what to write.  Sometimes I have just to trust that the Lord will provide some inspiration. Fortunately, the Gospel this past weekend provided the inspiration needed to complete my “musings.”

The calling of the first disciples is a wonderful scene from our Lord’s public ministry.  The immediacy of the response of Peter, Andrew, James and John is a reminder that sometimes our discipleship comes without a clear road map of where we are being led.  There is no way these four intrepid fishermen could have known what their decision to follow Jesus was going to entail over the course of the next three years, or what It would require of them after His death and resurrection.  However, even though they did not have all the answers, or even all the questions at this point in their relationship with Jesus, they were willing to let go of everything they knew and trust in God’s providence.

We know that they were not always the most faithful or insightful friends to Our Lord.  All of them at one time or another in their discipleship made mistakes, became presumptuous and even ran away in fear, but God did not reject them.  God called them back, strengthened them, sent them the Holy Spirit, so that they could go out to all the world and tell the Good News.  They remind us that despite our own failures in following Jesus, we are never going to be rejected, but invited back to know His love and mercy and set out once again on the journey of faith and evangelization.

We may not be encountering Jesus at the Sea of Galilee, but we encounter Him in the Eucharist.  Let us follow Him daily with all our heart, soul and strength and know that just like the first apostles, with all of our own faults and failures, the Lord can make us saints.

Msgr. John McDermott

Vicar general