“At once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him” (Mt 4:12-23)
The gospel text of today from Matthew narrates to us the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus in Capernaum. It was one of the principal towns around the lake of Galilee. It was on the trade route between the southern nations (that included even Egypt) and the northern lands of Syria and even Turkey. The Romans had established a customs office at Capernaum and a garrison managed by a centurion. Traders had to give a large rate of tax for unprocessed goods like grain and olives. Therefore, it is possible that besides the fishing industry Capernaum had a lot of processing units where grains were milled into flours and olives pressed to extract oil. The number of millstones and olive presses, lying all over Capernaum today, stand as witness to this once flourishing town. It is interesting to note that it is this bubbling town that Jesus chooses as the headquarters for his three-year public ministry (Mt 4:12).
The first apostles of Jesus – may be even most of them – came from around Capernaum. The gospel text of today talks about the call of the first four apostles: Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. It is surprising to note that Jesus encounters them in their work-places, not in a place of worship! And it is Jesus who goes out to meet and invite them. Is it possible that Jesus could be coming out to meet us too as we are immersed in our own daily toil? Secondly, Jesus’ first disciples were hard-working entrepreneurs, not a bunch of poor or lazy men! To refer to these four apostles as poor – in the economic sense of the word – is totally baseless. Illiterate? May be. Poor? No! Lazy escapists? Not at all!
I have seen a number of fishermen and their colonies.. In fishing villages if someone had a boat, nets, hired men, and worked together as cousins they were surely not ‘poor fishermen’ as we tend to refer to the apostles. Peter and Andrew, of today’s gospel, worked together (Mt 4:18); when brothers work together in fishing it flourishes. Speaking of John and James, the gospel says, they were mending their nets with the father (Mt 4:21). The gospel of Mark adds another interesting detail: “Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him” (Mk 1:20). Luke makes a further connection between Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee, that they were partners (Lk 5:10). Now all these details just assure me that these first disciples were enterprising bunch of able-bodied men, who ran a very flourishing fishing industry that created jobs. They were entrepreneurs.
Against this background, this sentence becomes very powerful: At once, leaving everything, they followed HIM (Mt 4:20, 22). They had plenty to leave behind. They were ready to move out of their comfort zones to join this itinerant preacher. Was it his piercing message that moved them? Or was it the powerful encounter that allured them?
Today’s first reading begins with these words from Isaiah: “The people who walked in darkness has seen a great light” (Is 9:2), and which is again quoted by Matthew to introduce the public ministry of Jesus (Mt 4:16). The apostles, despite their entrepreneurial skills, when they encountered Jesus perhaps realized that they were in the dark. So they leave everything to follow the Light. Is Jesus inviting us to do the same?
Fr. Franco Pereira, S.D.B.