Come after me!...

"Come after me and I will make you fishers of men!"

"And they left their nets and followed him!"

As I sit here and look out my window, I see our Mexican gardeners harvesting our January orange crop. They are hard workers bronzed by the Arizona sun.

In some ways they are like the fishermen in today's Gospel. Only their quest is oranges high up in the trees rather than fish deep in the Sea.

And I muse: What if Jesus of Nazareth were passing by? What if he came along our sidewalk and cried out to them: "Come follow me!"

Would they leave their ladders and go with him?

Somehow, I think they would.

For they are just ordinary guys doing their best to make a living.

No pretence. No guile in them.

(And when Jesus described what he admired in one of the apostles he called, he complimented him in these words:

"He is a man without guile!"

And that was the kind of person he was looking for.

And so are the Mexicans!

And so were the apostles.

Jesus did not call non smelling, well coifed clerics from the temple to follow him.

No just down to earth sweaty workers.

They were neither the richest of the rich, nor the poorest of the poor. No they were probably ordinary guys from the middle class who scraped by with the help of a few hired men.

They had everything to lose, and knew not what they would gain.

Yet, they dropped their nets and followed him.

Reflecting on this scene an old John Denver song comes to mind and might be our

prayer today:

You see, I'd like to share my life with you,

and show you things I've seen,

places that I'm going to, and places where I've been.

To have you there beside me and never be alone,

And all the time that your with me, and never be alone,

and all the time that your with me, then we will be at home.

Follow me where I go, and who I know.

Make it part of you to be a part of me.

Follow me up and down, all the way and all around.

Take my hand and I will follow you!