Monday of
the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
January 11, 2016 8:30am
Twice in today’s gospel Jesus
calls people to follow him, and both times they do exactly that.
They follow him.
I got thinking about this
yesterday afternoon.
When I was growing up, my mother
and father would always say: Don’t be a follower.
What they meant was: don’t just
go along with the crowd and do what others do.
Do what you have been taught is
the right and good thing to do.
It was good guidance and good parenting.
It really helped my brother and
me.
So at first glance, this business
about following in today’s gospel seems contradictory.
But, the idea I got yesterday is
that when Jesus calls us to follow him, he is asking us to own and internalize
his values and teachings and then live out of them.
And when we do that, when we are
followers in this way, we are really leaders.
We are living out of our
relationship with him and out of our inner values and beliefs, which come from
Jesus.
And, when we do that, the irony
is being a follower makes us a leader.
Maybe we will not be the chairman
of this or the president of that, but we will be leading in our own way because
we will be following the Lord and what is within us.
That’s my take on this gospel
today.
