In today’s gospel, Jesus arrived in Galilee proclaiming the good news of God and that the Kingdom of God is near and that the people should repent and believe in the good news. As Jesus walked along the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers who were fishermen, Simon and Andrew. He walked further and saw brothers James and John and their father Zebedee, who were also fishermen. He called on Simon and Andrew to stop what they were doing and follow him. He also called on James and John to leave their father, to stop what they were doing, and also follow him.
If someone were to ask us to do that today, would you? What would we think of that person? How would we react? Would we stop what we were doing, even if we were doing something that provides for our family? Probably not. We would probably think he was strange and odd and probably ignore him. We would probably see what he was about first, maybe google him and see if he had a Facebook page or see if he was on Twitter.
When Jesus arrived in Galilee, it was around the time John the Baptist was arrested which became the start of Jesus’s public life to spread the good news of God. The brothers he asked to follow him may not have known who he was or what he was about, or why he was asking them to follow him.
So, when we were young children, how did we learn about Jesus in this day and age? Definitely not through social media……I hope. A good guess would probably be from our parents, and them from their parents. When Jesus asked the brothers to follow him, it wasn’t just to “follow” him to where he was going, but to also follow his teachings. That’s what we are called to do, and all Jesus asks us to do, is simply follow him. Our parents and their parents are followers of Jesus, and they want to pass that on to us, and it started when our parents had us baptized.
