January 25, 2009: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Do you feel God has given you a “call” to either draw closer to Him, or to go forth to do something in His Name? In the readings this weekend we “overhear” two “calls” of God: one given to the prophet Jonah, the other by Jesus to the first disciples. We know from the part of the Book of Jonah NOT read in today’s reading that he didn’t particularly like the call he got, and, in fact, tried to escape it—to no avail. Probably the disciples found Jesus’ call just as distasteful. Why? Well, the Sea of Galilee area was a hot bed of revolution, and had been for decades. Several major revolutionary movements could be traced to that rambunctious area. The disciples Jesus called were probably preparing themselves to be revolutionaries of some sort. What they became, through the call, was indeed revolutionary, but probably not what they would have envisioned. This is a weekend to simply ask God what he wants of each one of us—that to which He is calling us—and we should never make that prayer without accompanying it with a prayer asking for the strength to follow through in fulfilling it.