Today is the start of Ordinary season, when we come off the high of Christmas and everything (liturgical) turns green and “ordinary”. So what is the Gospel reading to start off this season? Well, it is anything but ordinary:

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God:

“This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them.

So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him. (Mark 1:14-20)

Although Mark does use rather ordinary language to describe this scene, think about the extraordinary step that these four men – Peter, Andrew, James and John – just took. They left their entire livelihood to take up with an itinerant preacher who, up to this point, had done nothing really spectacular and had no real following. Yet they answered Christ’s call and followed him. We have witnessed much greater works than they had up to this point – but are we following his call?

As our days become more ordinary, let us pray that we might make the extraordinary step each day of Ordinary time of leaving everything behind to follow Christ.