Flashback
It may be a while before we are all back together again.
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. - Matthew 4:18-25
Here we are in the fourth week of Easter Season, a time when the resurrected Jesus is walking among his followers, encountering them without them realizing it, and we have a reading that takes us back to the beginning, when they chose to follow him.
It is a flashback to the exciting times when their expectations were high and only good things were happening.
If only we could go back, they may be thinking. We could do things differently. We could avoid Jerusalem. He could have succeeded in his plan.
But it is important that we remember what it was like at the beginning, so we can see how the plan unfolded, how we enjoyed what we discovered.
For us today, looking back just a few months can be helpful. We can discover what we took for granted, what we enjoyed without thinking about it, and what we may want to do differently going forward.
This is the time to plan the future, to get ourselves ready to come back together, and to be more aware of what is happening around us.
We can do this. We have faith. We believe.
So, let us start to get ready.
More to come...