One of the most unique and amazing things about this call of the First Apostles in our Gospel today is that there is no indication whatsoever that before Christ called them, they had any idea who He was. 

What’s more is that the call was not simply to follow Him, it was more intimate than that, it was a call to “come after Him,” to try to live above and beyond the person calling them, which, of course, is impossible, but to imitate Him, which is possible. He is, in essence, telling them that by accepting His call, they are to live as He lives, to suffer as He suffers, and to embrace the Will of the Father as He does in the Garden and at the foot of the Cross.

Perhaps, they didn’t know the ramifications of their consent, but, even so, it didn’t stop them from dropping everything, from abandoning their nets and their father and leaving it all behind. Because they saw something in Him, they desired something more than being fisherman and they wanted to be something more, which is why, for whatever reason, they knew in their hearts that this person calling them was more than just some man, they knew that He could provide what they were looking for and they were willing to take that chance to find what only He could provide.

Yet, at heart, that is the nature of any call from God, He doesn’t wait, He doesn’t find the appropriate time, He calls when He needs us, and He expects a timely answer. Ultimately, He asks us if we are willing to take the chance that He is providing us, if we are willing to do what He asks in spite of ourselves, knowing that the road may seem dark but that He will be there as our guide.

In fact, that was Jonah in our first reading, and while it doesn’t mention it explicitly here, he was a reluctant prophet; never sure he was worthy of the call, and never knowing whether what he did or said made any difference. Yet, it made all the difference in the world, because not only did Nineveh heed his warning, they repented of their ways and the city was saved by this reluctant prophet.

While he didn’t know the affect he would have on a single city, God knew, and while those First Apostles didn’t know what was in store for them, what would happen if they embraced a life in imitation of Christ, God knew, and, yet, that is the point, God calls each and every one us to holiness, exactly where we are right now.

St. Francis De Sales, the saint whom we celebrate today (celebrated yesterday) understood this, for he would say that the devotion of the person depended on their state in life, so that as he put it: a bishop couldn’t be a Carthusian, which is a contemplative group of monks that live in solitude, or a married person couldn’t practice the vow of poverty that a Franciscan monk takes, or a working man could not spend all day in church like a religious, since he has responsibilities.

He believed that true devotion is only true if it helped one’s station and calling in life, which is why he said that: “It is therefore an error…to wish to exclude the exercise of devotion from military divisions, from the artisans’ shops, from the courts of the princes, from family households.” In other words, he believed that, no matter what we do, no matter who we are, we are to strive each and every day for holiness, to never let the opportunity for prayer pass us by, to never miss an opportunity to sanctify the moments that make up our day, since it is what we do in our day to day life that helps or hinders our path to holiness.

 
In fact, he would often say: “Do not wish to be anything but what you are and try to be that perfectly.”

So that no matter where we are called or what we are called to, we are, ultimately called to holiness, and while sometimes we may not know what that looks like, what we do know as that by embracing God’s Will we will find it.

And, sometimes when that happens, we start to see what God truly wants, and sometimes that involves a deeper call, that feeling, like the First Apostles, that there is something more, sometimes it is a call to missionary work or to help clothe or feed those in need, spiritually or physically, or sometimes it is a call to serve in the Church as a deacon, priest or religious.

A desire that no matter what we do in life, unless we do what God wants, we will never find true happiness, we will never find that which can fulfill us and bring us the closest to God.

That is why, no matter the call, like those in our readings, we are to respond, we are to listen, we are to come after and follow, knowing, in the end, as St. Francis De Sales put it: “In whatever situations we happen to be, we can and we must aspire to the life of perfection.”