Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Year B

“Come After Me, And I Will Make You Fishers Of Men”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, January 21, 2024

The first encounter between Socrates, a great Greek ancient philosopher and a young man, Xenophon, who later became a disciple of Socrates has been narrated over and over again by the Greeks. The narrative says that both men, Socrates and Xenophon met in a narrow lane, and as Xenophon was about to pass, Socrates blocked him with his cane. Before Xenophon could express his feeling or ask a question, Socrates asked him if he knew where he could buy material things, and if he knew where those material things were made? Xenophon answered in the affirmative, yes. Then Socrates asked again, “Do you know where men are made good and virtuous?” The young Xenophon said, “No.” Looking intently at him, Socrates said to him, “Then follow me and learn!” 

Like Socrates, Jesus too made disciples. He asked Simon, Andrew, James and John to follow him. Interestingly, these were not men of great scholarship, or influence, or wealth, or social background. They were not poor, but they were simple working class people with no great background. What were they doing when they were called? They were looking for fish because they were fishermen. They were working and doing what earns them a living. Surprisingly when they heard the command, “Come… I will make you fishers of men” they abandoned everything and followed Jesus. James and John not only left their professional tools behind, they left their father, Zebedee as well. Jesus invited them to become fishers of men. What does that mean? Jesus wants them to fish people out of something. The implication here is that there is a sea that people are swimming in that is not good for them. Today, that sea is the sea of secularist ideology which says you can be perfectly happy with the goods of the world. This ideology does great violence to the human heart because as St. Augustine says our heart is wired to God, our heart is restless until it rests in God. We are ordered by innate natural desires towards ultimate truth, ultimate goodness, ultimate beauty. No truth, goodness or beauty in the world, no wealth, pleasure, honor or power in this world can finally satisfy that longing of the heart. This is why the secular ideology is a destructive ideology. 

The image of a fish is a good one for there are a lot of people today who like a fish are floating around aimlessly, dead eye, glassy eye in the sea of the secularist ideology. They may have a lot of wealth, pleasure and honor, but they are like a fish with dead eyes and glassy eyes floating aimlessly in the sea of secularism. Jesus wants helpers who can fish people out of this savaging environment. This is the call yesterday and today, and it will be the call for all ages. Although this call can be said to have been addressed to priests and those intending to become priests, it is also addressed to all Christians. Jesus is calling followers to be light bearers. What is required to answer this call? The Gospel says, “…they (Simon and Andrew) abandoned their nets and followed him.” The net is the principal tool for a first century Galilean fisherman. As they row the sea, they cast the nets out and wait for it to catch fish. Nets symbolize livelihood, professionalism, connection to the economic world, it means security too. If you take a Galilean fisherman’s net away, you take away his livelihood. So leaving their nets means they left their preoccupation, livelihood, money and financial security in order to follow Jesus and do what he wants. 

As Jesus walked a little further, he saw James and John with their Father Zebedee. They were also in their boat mending their nets. He called the two brothers and immediately they left their father in the boat along with hired men and followed him. What is a boat? It is another tool used by fishermen. It is the symbol of a first century Galilean fisherman’s autonomy and livelihood. By abandoning it in order to follow Jesus, they were abandoning their own autonomy. They were leaving their boat behind in order to get into the boat of Jesus. They surrendered their autonomy. Secondly, they left their father, Zebedee. There is no society more family centric than the society of Jesus’ time. One’s duties and obligations to mother, father, brothers and sisters, and even to extended family were norms and life defining. When Jesus said to a man, “Follow me,” and the man replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father,” (Lk. 9:59), to which Jesus answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead,” (Lk. 9:60) it was shocking and sensational. It was a sacred obligation at the time to bury one’s father. Another Jesus’ breathtaking declaration is “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…” (Matthew. 10:37). The most pressing obligation we have is to love our parents, but Jesus is saying that unless you him more than your parents you are not worthy of him. Is Jesus against family? No! But he is relativizing family; he is relativizing the hold of the family on us. What is most important is our relationship to him. 

Simon and Andrew left their nets, that is livelihood, money, security. James and John left their boat, that means autonomy. They left their father, that is, all their obligations to the family to follow Jesus. Am I asking you to leave your job? No. Am I asking you to leave your family? Absolutely not. Am I asking you to stop making money? Not at all. However, none of these— livelihood, money, or family should hinder your relationship with God. Accept the simplicity of life so that you can be free to follow the Lord wherever he leads. Don’t be entangled in your nets or allow your nets to capture you just as it does to a fish in the sea. Don’t be trapped in your boat or allow your boat to capsize and decimate or kill your spiritual life. Don’t allow your family to hinder your spiritual growth, as much as you love them. Our family should aid and support our decision to follow the Lord more closely and not hinder it. Our primary and most important goal in life is to follow Jesus wherever he leads us. That is the number one purpose of a Christian.