Following Christ

Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 86 (85):3, 5 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you.

Collect God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Psalm 23; Luke 5:1-11

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding round him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:1-11)

Following Christ St Paul never met Christ prior to his Ascension. If he had, he would doubtlessly have alluded to it in his Letters. Inasmuch as Paul studied under Gamaliel in Jerusalem, he may have heard of Jesus of Nazareth when our Lord was engaged in his public ministry, but we do not know. He met the glorious, risen Jesus for the first time on his way to Damascus, while hunting the followers of the Way. One gathers that he met the glorious Christ on other occasions too — for instance, he speaks of being caught up in the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12: 2-4). Did Paul know much about the life of Jesus Christ apart from what he was told by the risen Jesus himself as a revelation? I suspect he knew from reliable sources a great deal about the life of Jesus Christ. For instance, St Paul in writing of the appearances of Christ after his resurrection, provides us with some information not given in the Gospel accounts. He tells us that after showing himself to Cephas and the Twelve, to which the Gospels allude (Luke 24: 34-36), Christ appeared to “five hundred of the brethren at once ... After that, he was seen by James and all the apostles. And last of all he was seen by me also” (1 Corinthians 15: 5-8). There were plenty of people around who could tell Paul about the life and death of Jesus. But there is this: there is the information gathered and recorded by Luke, Paul’s companion. The Acts of the Apostles alone makes clear that Luke was an associate of Paul in many of his missionary travels, and Paul himself refers to Luke as “the beloved physician," and his "fellow labourer." We do not know when Luke began his remarkable labour of writing his Gospel and the Acts, but presumably it at least was well under way during his years of close friendship with Paul. Paul may have insistently urged him to pursue the work. In this painstaking investigation Luke gained a profound knowledge of the history of Christ’s life and of the years of the Church immediately following the Ascension. We may presume he met and interviewed the mother of Jesus for his Infancy material. St Paul would have had an extraordinarily good source of information in Luke.

The point is that in these two persons, Luke and Paul, companions and collaborators in the great mission, we have individuals who did not know Christ in the flesh on earth, but who gained an extraordinarily intimate knowledge of him. The inspired writings of each as they appear in the New Testament are about equal in length, and their combined writing constitutes approximately half of the New Testament. Luke provided a magnificent statement of the facts, and Paul provided a magnificent statement of the meaning of them. Luke presented his careful history of Jesus Christ, and Paul explains what it means to live in him. Luke presented his history of the early Church, and Paul gives us his master experience and teaching on the Church as Christ’s body. I cannot believe that there was not a profound interchange between the two on what each was thinking and writing. Of course, we cannot be sure that Luke was researching and writing at the same time as he was serving as companion to Paul, but I strongly suspect that at least he was doing some of it. I mention these two examples of ardent disciples who did not know Christ in the flesh, but who followed our Lord as generously as those whom Luke reports in our Gospel today. Luke tells us of Christ’s first companions who received his call and left all to follow him. In our passage today Luke tells us of Simon Peter, and James and John — whom Paul refers to in one of his Letters as the “pillars” of the early Church (Galatians 2:9). What did these “pillars” do when Christ first called them? “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:1-11). In Luke’s Gospel account, these “pillars” were exemplary benchmarks of instant response to Christ.. He, a “second-generation” Christian, as it were, holds up their example of total response to the call of Christ.

Let us look to their example too. When Simon saw what Christ had done, he was struck with humble and self-abasing awe. “Then Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” Let us hear that same call in our hearts. Christ wishes each of us to follow him and to participate in his mission. We do this in accordance with our God-given vocation whatever it might be, and according to our circumstances of life. Let us live every day as Christ’s true companions, sharing in his toils so as to share in his Kingdom.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection: (1 Corinthians 3:18-23)

The wisdom of God One of the things which the deeply convinced Christian who studies the history of philosophy and human thought notices is, how wide of the mark from Revelation are the ideas of so many great minds. Such a study illustrates what St Paul says in today's first reading (1 Corinthians 3:18-23), that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. However, if we live in Christ and allow our thinking to be imbued with the revealed wisdom of God, then a great deal in human thought can be recognised as worthwhile and appropriated by the human mind. On that basis we can think very positively of the efforts of the wise of this world. The study of human culture, human thought, and the religions of man can enhance the life of the Christian, provided he approaches it, and judges of it, with the mind of Christ.

Let us grow in the mind of Christ, and introduce others to the spirit and mind of Christ so that human culture can be evangelised from within.

(E.J.Tyler)

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