By Fr. Ron Will, CPPS
When Jesus called his first disciples, he didn’t invite them just to attend his public lectures, but to join him, to live with him, to share meals with him, to pray with him, to teach with him, and to serve the poor with him. To share life with him.
The image above depicts Jesus’ call of the first disciples (Luke 5: 1-10). Look at the faces of Peter (still called Simon then) and James. Look at the intensity in their faces. Jesus had just finished preaching to a crowd from Simon’s boat, and he had instructed them to cast their nets again. Despite being out all night and nothing to show for it, they cast again into the water.
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”
Over many weeks and months, the disciples absorbed Jesus’s way of living. Imagine spending three years living with Jesus.
If we wish to follow Jesus as disciples, we too will seek to be absorbed into his way of living. Over time, we will be transformed — little by little — taking on the character of Christ, imitating his way of life.
Click on the video below and explore with Fr. Ron the idea of being absorbed into The Way of the Teacher.
God bless you on your Lenten journey.
All of the videos in this series can be found here: Lenten Video Meditations
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This post and video were originally published on March 31, 2020.
[Fr. Ron Will, a Precious Blood priest and spiritual director, is a graduate of Catholic Theological Union and Creighton University’s School of Christian Spirituality. He has a special interest in helping form intentional disciples of Jesus, encouraging others to go spiritually deep-sea diving to explore a deeper relationship with God, and walking with people as they dive into the ocean of God’s mystery actually experiencing God rather than simply dipping one’s toe into the water.]
The image above is “The Miraculous Draught of Fishes,” 1515, one of the seven remaining Raphael cartoons for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel (Victoria and Albert Museum)
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