Feast of St. Andrew

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Jesus always calls his disciples – each one of us. With some, this calling is very explicit. Most monks and nuns have a story about their calling, that moment in their lives when everything changed forever. For some, it was a very contemplative, silent, crystal-clear moment when we know that God exists and our life makes sense in Him. For others, this calling came as a turmoil, an upheaval, when everything turned upside down for a long time, and when the dust subsided – we were changed. And for many, maybe for most, this calling seems silent, never coming. In fact, I have heard many people saying, “Father, I never felt Jesus’ call in my life”. But Pope Benedict XVI, in his very first homily as a Pope, says that there as many vocations, as many callings in the Church, as there are baptized disciples. Each Baptism is a calling. In this sense, a religious vocation is a calling inside the universal calling to holiness. But I also would like to point that, oftentimes, we prefer not to hear Jesus’ calling. Because his calling demands commitment, a radical change in our lives. And it is far easier to be mediocre and
lukewarm than coherent and fervent. A calling is not a mystical privilege: it is a calling to die, to leave everything that we most love, take up our Cross and follow a lonely Christ, who has not where to lay his head. Maybe that is because Jesus’ calling looks so silent to many: because we are afraid of what we might hear. Discipleship is a blessed calling and a happy experience. But this blessedness and this happiness is not cheap; it is meaningful. It costs our life. May we follow St Andrew’s example and answer to Jesus every time he calls us.