If you were going to launch an effort to change the world - to bring about a revolution based on a new set of values and commitment to the common good - who would you choose as your spokesperson?
Most of us would probably look to some political, financial or even spiritual leader. If I were launching a movement, I would want someone who enjoys a great deal of public trust and goodwill, and who has a track record of doing good, to represent me.
When it came time for Jesus to choose his disciples, he did no such thing. As we see in today's Gospel, Jesus began his ministry of spiritual and moral transformation by asking a few fishermen if they wanted to follow him around.
Now, I have the utmost respect for fishermen. I love to fish myself. But professional fishermen, while they are strong and brave and probably very smart, are not usually on most peoples' short list of candidates to be global leaders.
Of course, Jesus hardly ever does anything the way I would. I would look to the corridors of power and influence, and find some people who knew how to get things done. We would need policies, platforms and a campaign strategy. Yet Jesus calls people one by one, and doesn't appear to have a strategy at all, other than to build friendships and impart teaching by example, slowly, over a period of years.
It has been said that the only ability you need to follow Jesus Christ is "teachability." Sometimes, or maybe most of the time if you're like me, you lack the ability to learn new ways of living. Even when the way I am living is not working, I can still resist change. I hope, irrationally, that the rules of the universe will change so that I don't have to.
What Jesus may see in these fishermen is people who can be taught, who are not set in their own ways, and who will not insist on their own agendas.
Jesus calls these fishermen to follow him, and they seem to leap from their boats for the chance to be with him. Was Jesus that charismatic? Were the disciples that bored? Was it some inexplicable connection where all of them realized that this was the opportunity they'd been looking for to accomplish their dreams and goals?
We can't tell what was going on in the minds of the disciples or of Christ from the slim narrative we're given here. But we can tell that something powerful took place.
In today's first reading, and in the Gospel, we're reminded of the prophecy from Isaiah: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." The first disciples seek to respond to a great light in their presence when Jesus calls them to follow. Perhaps Jesus sees a light in them as well - perhaps he sees openness, a craving for more in their lives, a spark of faith.
We know the rest of the story. Jesus is not interested in change through mass communications. The first disciples are not influential powerbrokers or seasoned spin doctors. Yet together they do indeed change the world forever.
Bill Peatman writes from Napa.
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