Commentary on Sunday’s Gospel, Second Sunday of Matthew – The Calling of the First Disciples
Sofia Bekri, philologist – theologian
The qualities of the disciples
More precisely, before the Lord gathers His disciples, He first chooses them, certainly not at random. Nor does the Lord choose the place of His teaching at random. He settles in Capernaum, «beyond the Jordan», in «Galilee of the nations», there where the darkness of idols prevailed, so that now, with the coming of the Lord, «the people who sat in darkness saw a great light.» (Matt. 4:13-16).
But neither is the time of the Lord’s teaching chosen at random. The Lord «withdrew into Galilee» immediately after the arrest of John, when the climate in Judea was hostile toward Him, whereas remote Galilee constituted fertile ground for the illumination of the people who sat «in darkness and the shadow of death» by the Sun of Righteousness.
Moreover, there, in Galilee of the nations, there was also the first leaven: the disciples of the Forerunner. These fishermen of fish had received the first lessons of repentance beside the great teacher of repentance, John. He, in turn, revealed to them that the one coming after him, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, is the Son of God and their own saviour, «who taketh away the sin of the world» (John 1:29-34). After these recommendations, two of John’s disciples, Andrew and Peter first, and then two others, Philip and John, followed the Lord. This was, according to St. John Chrysostom, the first calling, whereas now, after their first discipleship beside the Lord and the death of their first teacher, the Forerunner, they follow Him definitively.
What is it that impels the former disciples of John to follow their new teacher? The first and fundamental thing, as we said, is the recommendations they have from John and their preparatory training beside him. Besides, John, who commended them to Him, constituted a «guarantee» and enjoyed general esteem from the people and from the rulers of the Jews, and indeed from that very Herod who beheaded him. It was, you see, easy and pleasant to listen to him, but difficult to follow his exhortations and to repent. For the disciples of John, however, it was not difficult to follow the Lord, because, beside John, they had been trained in humility and in repentance.
The second quality of the Lord’s disciples is their readiness. It is mentioned in the Gospel reading of the Second Sunday of Matthew concerning the calling of the disciples that both Peter and Andrew, as well as James and John, responded «immediately» to the Lord’s call and followed Him, the former «immediately leaving their nets», the latter «immediately leaving the boat and their father» (Matt. 4:20, 22).
The fact that these particular disciples are uneducated fishermen is an additional quality. But is lack of education a quality? Someone might reasonably wonder. Yes, it is, and indeed a great one. If the Lord’s disciples had possessed education, in the sense of human wisdom, they might have followed Him at first, with enthusiasm for His new teaching, but afterward, as soon as they realized that discipleship beside Him did not bring them the grandeurs they expected –riches, glory, pleasures–, they would have abandoned Him.
His disciples, however, at least the basic core of the twelve, did not abandon Him, because, despite their human doubts, even disappointments, and even before their complete illumination by the Holy Spirit, they discerned, with their simple wisdom, that the Lord possessed «words of eternal life» (John 6:68-69). Thus, their lack of education was ultimately a provision not only for their own salvation but also for the salvation of their fellow men, through their subsequent mission.
But these uneducated fishermen possessed yet one more provision, beyond their fishing ability of course: that they knew how to live communally and to share the benefits of their joint – cooperative enterprise. As Luke relates in his own Gospel, when, at the Lord’s urging, after a fruitless night, Simon cast his nets once again and caught a multitude of fish, he did not exploit it alone, but «beckoned unto his partners in the other boat» (Luke 5:7) to come and share them!
Consequently, the future collaborators of the Lord in His missionary work knew the benefits of cooperation and did not hesitate to respond with readiness to His call for their training in the fishing of rational fish. First they heard the word of the Lord and then they became doers of it and sent forth His message to the ends of the earth.
The same we too ought to do: to become doers of the word of God and not only hearers, because «the doers of His law shall be justified», as we hear in the apostolic reading of the Second Sunday of Matthew (Rom. 2:13). Practically, this means that we need to do what the first disciples of the Lord did. First of all, to free ourselves from our own «nets», from our own passions, which keep us captive in the world of sin; secondly, to accept, as His disciples also did, to be trained with readiness in the right teaching of the Lord, so that, thirdly, and most importantly, we may become doers of His word and co-workers in the God-pleasing work of training also other brethren of ours in the teaching in Christ. The basic thing, in any case, is to be willing to respond to the timeless call of the Lord to all of us: «follow after me, and I will make you fishers of men.» (Matt. 4:20).
Our response constitutes an act of responsibility, because the call is followed by work, and the work demands faith and consistency, like that which the first disciples of the Lord also displayed, to their honour. That is, they not only responded immediately to His call but also remained, in the three and a half years of their collaboration with Him, ready and faithful, despite their human waverings, as we said. In the end, however, they gained the joy of martyrdom.
Let us too long for this joy and at the same time the honour of His living witness, becoming imitators of the Lord and of His Apostle disciples (1 Cor. 11:1), for the glory of God and for our own salvation. So be it!
