Homily for Monday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time

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Nice Gospel for the 2nd day of National Vocations Awareness Week. The calling of the first apostles. Nice. Notice that Jesus called the first apostles two by two. He called two sets of brothers. Too often we try to figure out our vocations as individuals. We should be asking our best friends about our vocation. We should be asking our brothers and sisters. What do you think Jesus is calling me to do. When the Lord calls us, there is a good chance he is calling our best friends as well. How much less scary is it to answer your vocation from God if your best friend answers at the same time. These kind of conversations should be taking place between friends and siblings all the time. Let's be priests together. Let's be sisters together. Wouldn't that be cool?

Does Jesus thinking fishing is a lame job? Not really. It's just that a vocation to follow Him more precisely is more than a job. Jesus is offering the chance to get to know God as an intimate friend. He is offering a chance to be a part of the mission to redeem the world. So he has every right to ask the apostles to leave their nets. And they do. In the same way, we should not compare any career, no matter how cool, to the chance to be a priest or a sister. Being religious is in a different category and is something we have to seriously consider before moving on to pursue some other career. Being a priest or a sister, as Jesus shows, should be our first option, not our back-up plan.

Everyone should give Jesus every opportunity to call them to be a priest or a sister. We should be ready to go as soon as possible, as ready as were the first apostles. Too many people try to hide their vocations or they end up throwing them away because they are not ready to answer. But it is true that Jesus does not call everyone to be a priest or a sister. He is calling more than are able to answer, but He does not call everyone. We see this in Zebedee and in the hired men whom Jesus did not call. In the end, we can't be a priest or a sister unless Jesus invites us and calls us by name. But to hear His call, we must pray, or we will never hear it. +m