Wanted:- Men and women willing to leave behind their old way of life and become fishers men.”

There aren’t many of us who would jump at this job application. It isn’t that we don’t want to become   fishers of men, its leaving behind our old way of life that we’re not too keen on. It seems that there is very little that would persuade us to abandon our own self-interest.

In today’s gospel one of the most impressive elements is that the early disciples accept the call to repent, abandon their fishing nets and follow Jesus. That they turn away from a successful business in order to     become ‘fishers of men’ is a measure of their commitment

Today there are still those who accept the challenge to abandon everything and become fishers of men. Each year, thousands of men and women give their lives to God and join religious orders. How do the rest of us answer to call to become ‘fishers of men’? We can’t all join religious orders; we have to find a way of answering the call in our own situation, and we might have lots of questions to ask first. What would being a disciple involve? Would we be up to the job? What would we have to leave behind? What would we have to give up? Would part time discipleship be okay …  after all we’ve got lots else to do

There would be lots of questions we would ask, but sadly no easy answers. There is no one answer that is right for everybody. But the one important message for us today is that discipleship usually means a major shift in direction; a change that involves leaving behind things that get in the way of our  relationship with God. It is left to each of us to decide what our particular mode of discipleship might be, and what stands in the path of our new direction. Our new direction has to start with some good hard soul   searching, and a real desire to do something more   important with our lives.