The first disciples who followed Jesus (Matthew 4:18-22)

(One day Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee)

Andrew : Peter, who is that person, coming towards us?

Peter : Ah! Is that Jesus?

(Jesus comes towards them)

Jesus : “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”

Peter and Andrew : “Lord , we will come with you”

(As they walked little further with Jesus, and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets with their father)

Jesus : “Come after me”

James and John : Lord, we are also coming with you. Father we are going with Jesus. Peter and Andrew are also with Jesus. They are our friends.

“Come and follow me” was the calling of Jesus to peter, Andrew James and John, and at once, they followed Jesus. It was explained by the above dialogue (Matthew 4:18-22). They are the first disciples of Jesus.

They;

• Obeyed Jesus' word.

• Left everything and followed Jesus.

• Priority of their lives was given to Jesus.

• Followed Jesus and proclaimed Good News to others.

“Come and follow me, I will make you the fishers of men”. We too have received a calling at our Baptism. Jesus calls all of us for different tasks. Therefore it is our responsibility to respond to those callings.

What we should do, to respond to our Christian calling

• We too should take the example of obedience of the first disciples to our life.

• We should respond to the call at any moment of our life.

• Being obedient to the Jesus' words, we should fulfill our duties and responsibilities which will be assigned to us.

• We should meditate on God's word constantly.

• By listening to the Divine word, we should explain the word of God to others.

Call of Matthew

At the time of Jesus, the tax collectors were cornered from the Jewish society, because they collected excess taxes from the Jews in an unlawful way, which they should pay to the Roman empire. Because of that, the tax collectors were named as sinners. But Jesus invited such a person whose name was Matthew. Sitting at the custom's post said “Come follow me”. He got up, left everything and followed him. In the same way there were people of different occupations, situations and status were among the disciples of Jesus. When we receive God's call we are obliged to leave everything and follow Jesus at any situation and at any cost.

The Twelve Apostles

Jesus selected the twelve and called them Apostles, that they might be with him, and send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. The appointed twelve apostles are:

1. Saint peter

2. Saint Andrew

3. Saint James, Son of Zebedee

4. Saint John

5. Saint Philip

6. Saint Bartholomew

7. Saint Thomas

8. Saint Matthew

9. Saint James, son of Alphaeus

10.Saint Jude Thaddeus

11.Saint Simon Cananean

12.Judas who betrayed Jesus

Judas who betrayed Jesus later repeuted for the act he did and hanged himself and died. Because of that one was less out of twelve. Therefore they prayed and selected Matthew to replace Judas, as an Apostle. So St. Matthew became the twelvth apostle of the early Christian community.

Commissioning the Missionary Responsibilities

Before his ascenssion, Jesus commissioned the Missionary Mandate to his Apostles by saying the below mentionad words.

Before he bid farewell to his Apostles, Jesus had given responsibilities to his Apostles, to carry on His mission. “Make disciples of all nations”. According to that as baptized, we have to introduce Jesus to others. “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. By this we see that the responsibility of conferring the sacrament of Baptism was directly given by Jesus Christ. “Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”. Because of this command, it is not enough to receive the sacrament of Baptism itself, but we have to observe the doctrine that Jesus taught, every day in our lives.

What we can do to introduce Jesus into the world

• Study the Holy Scripture thoroughly

• Receive the sacraments

• Constant participation in the Liturgy

• Read, meditate, and live according to the Scripture

• Be active in the missionary work

• Join and serve in the associations and confraternities of the parish