‘What does it mean to give up everything and follow Jesus?’ and ‘Why would you do it?’ were questions that I heard as I walked into pray in our spirituality centre in the hospital. As I went through the week these two questions stayed with me and lead me to look at the Gospel passages of Jesus calling the disciples. In Matthew 4:18-22 Jesus sees the brothers Simon and Andrew casting out their nets and say’s ‘Come after me and I will make you fishers of people’. He then calls James and John and they immediately respond to Jesus invitation by following him. In Luke 5: 11 it says; ‘Then bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed him.’ To accept these words literally Simon, Andrew, James & John saw Jesus responded with a ‘Yes’ to his invitation there and then gave up everything and followed Jesus. That sure is a tall order.
What does it mean for each of us to respond to the invitation to accept the call of God to be the centre of our lives? For me it is hard to explain. It is an ache, a longing to know God deeply and intimately. Its intangible yet profound, it’s desire and discipline. It’s a reaching out and reaching within and as Charlotte expressed through her homily on Sunday its that listening for the still calm voice of the God within that leads us to become part of the community in all our humanity, to work for justice and show love for all people. As I write this I recognise myself struggle to put words to that longing and for me the challenge is to be open to the journey of the call that God gives to me, to trust and be prepared to give up everything to follow. What does God call you to? Will you be prepared to give up everything and follow?
God bless
Lorraine
What does it mean for each of us to respond to the invitation to accept the call of God to be the centre of our lives? For me it is hard to explain. It is an ache, a longing to know God deeply and intimately. Its intangible yet profound, it’s desire and discipline. It’s a reaching out and reaching within and as Charlotte expressed through her homily on Sunday its that listening for the still calm voice of the God within that leads us to become part of the community in all our humanity, to work for justice and show love for all people. As I write this I recognise myself struggle to put words to that longing and for me the challenge is to be open to the journey of the call that God gives to me, to trust and be prepared to give up everything to follow. What does God call you to? Will you be prepared to give up everything and follow?
God bless
Lorraine
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