THE WORD
Rom 10: 9–18 / Mt 4: 18–22
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
IN OTHER WORDS
It was only after more than a week of living with our new seminarians in the formation house that I came to know that two of them were blood brothers. They did not have the same surname as it is not a practice in Madagascar to have a common family name. So, coming from another culture, I was a little bit surprised upon learning that the newcomers were actually brothers. The two, on seeing my reaction, thought I was not in favor of having them together around. I explained that I was just surprised; since I did not notice in their curriculum vitae that they had the same parents. I told them that there was no problem at all for them to be together, as long as their kinship would not hinder them from establishing brotherly relations with the others in the community.
In the Gospel today, Jesus called two sets of brothers to be his disciples. These brothers did not hesitate to leave behind not only their livelihood but also their own families so as to be with Jesus. Surely, it was not their first time to meet Jesus. They should have already known him or at least heard about him before that day when they were called. They left everything for Jesus, not because everything was not important, but because they were being called for something much more important and urgent: to be fishers of men, to be agents of God’s kingdom. To accomplish this mission, they needed to learn to go beyond family ties as well as personal affairs and embrace all persons as their own brothers and sisters.
- Jerry Songcog, SVD (Madagascar)
The Word in other words 2015
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
