And They Were Called

There's a stirring in the Spirit, there's an urgency in this hour. - from God is Moving, Hillsong United

Last Saturday my family and I went to hear mass (we always hear the anticipated mass for it's impossible to make my dad get out of the house on a Sunday. It's like his body shifts to "SLOTH" mode every Sunday). Anyway, the Gospel for the week (from Mark 1: 14-20), as well as the readings, all tackle one topic: servitude and the call to serve.

It was the sermon that really caught my attention. The priest talked about why, of all people, Christ chose fishermen to be one of his first disciples. He talked about some qualities of a fisherman:

• Work's time is inconvenient
When they go fishing, they don’t usually go to the waters when it’s bright and sunshiny. They leave at the most ungodly hour, when most of us are fast asleep. This nature of their work entails a lot of sacrifice on their part.

The same goes for us Christians. True service to the Lord is when we do it at the most inconvenient for us. I’m not saying that we be masochists and let our service affect the rest of our lives (now He won’t want that, either). It is the sacrifice on our parts to go out of our way, our busy schedules, and give some time for God.

It’s hard to sacrifice something, unless the one whom you’re gonna do the sacrifice for is someone very dear to you, at the very least. Yes, sacrifice requires love. Love for the one you’re going to do the act for, and letting go of another thing/person that you equally love. What’s the point of sacrifice if that thing you’re letting go off doesn’t matter to you that much anyway? It’s more like a ‘good riddance’ thing rather than true sacrifice.

• They go to the fish, not wait for the fish to come to them
Have you seen a fisherman fish from the beach? Chances are the only fish he’ll catch are dried fish drying out in the sun.

Just like them, we, as servants of Christ, should be the ones to gather the people and bring them to Him. We can’t just sit there and wait for the fruit to fall (remember the story of Juan Tamad and the guava tree?) We should go out there, share with them how great and wonderful the Lord is and, by His grace, make them realize the same thing.

• After catching fish they go back to the shore, guided by the lighthouse
After the fishermen have had enough catch for the day they go back to the shore. For the more sosyal fishermen they are guided back to shore by a lighthouse.

It’s important for us to remember that when we get to bring people to the Lord all praise and glory should go to HIM, not to us. Just like the fishermen going back to shore guided by the light of the lighthouse, so should we be going back to the source of everything, guided by His love and grace and Word. That’s what differentiates religion to cults, the priest said. In cults, it is the leader of the group that gets all the credit, turning into a very bog fans’ club. Religions, all glory goes back to God.

That’s one more trait of a servant that we must all have: humility. Let’s all be humble enough to realize that, even though it is US who did the work, in reality it’s still the Lord: our bodies, our energies, our intellect, it’s all from Him. It was He who sustained us, it was He who guided us, it was He who put the words into our mouths and movements in our limbs. That’s why we cannot boast of all our good works, as St. Paul iterates in his letters, for it was the Lord who worked through us. We are mere instruments. We are vessels that, if we chose to empty ourselves, can be filled by God’s Spirit to be used for His greater glory.

Come after me and I will make you fishers of men – Mark 1:17