mong the riches of the New Testament, we find many people called by Jesus to a new way of life. In these accounts, there are some shared elements. 
There are also some distinctive elements for each call. The calls are highly individualized -- appropriate for the person being called.


The call by Jesus often comes in very ordinary, everyday situations. In Mark 1, we read the account of the call given to the first disciples. They are not praying in the Temple. They are not deep in contemplation. They are not helping the poor or the troubled. Rather they are at their ordinary work of fishing and mending their nets. Fishing, mending nets, would hardly seem to be the appropriate setting for a call to follow Jesus, but the Gospel shows us otherwise.

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 abandoned 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 1:16-20).

Matthew, the task collector, is at his despised task of collecting taxes for the Romans when his call to follow Jesus comes (Mt. 9:9), while the woman at the well in John 4 is at the prosaic task of getting water to take home for household use, Jesus enters into conversation with her -- a long, patient conversation that ultimately sends her out as a missionary who converts a whole village (Jn. 4:39-42).
John's account of the call of the first disciples, on the other hand, shows the first two, Andrew and another disciple, called through the charismatic leader, John the Baptist. The Baptist points Jesus out to the two men saying, "Behold the Lamb of God" (Jn. 1:36). Andrew and his companion are intrigued by this and follow Jesus. Jesus turns to them, does not call them directly, but asks a pointed question: "What are you looking for?" (Jn. 1:38). What are they looking for? Their answer -- and ours -- to that question will set the tenure of their whole lives - and ours also. But right now, rather than answer, they respond with another question, which elicits an invitation from Jesus:

They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come, and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day (Jn. 1:39).

Then follows a series of calls coming from one friend to another. Andrew goes and finds both his brother, Simon, and a friend, Philip, who is from the same home town as the two brothers. Both Simon and Philip seem to come to Jesus immediately after they hear the news brought by Andrew (Jn. 1:41-44). Philip then tries to do the same with another friend, Nathanael, but Nathanael proves to be more skeptical than the others. "But Nathanael said to him, 'Can anything good come ftom Nazareth?' Philip said to him, 'Come and see' (Jn. 1:36).
"Come and see..." Jesus had used this invitation with Andrew and his companion. Now Philip uses it with the doubting Nathanael. They know that if the persons called experience Jesus personally; they will be touched by him.
And such is the result with Nathanael. Jesus indicates that he has a deep knowledge of Nathanael, but Nathanael, still skeptical, asks, "How do you know me?" And then Jesus overcomes his skepticism with the simplest of sentences, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree" This statement does not convey anything to us, but Jesus' knowledge of whatever happened under the fig tree is enough to cause Nathanael to capitulate: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel" (Jn. 1 :49).
Fishing, mending nets, getting water from the well, friend telling friend about an unusual man named Jesus - the call from Jesus to follow him often seems to come in the most ordinary of circumstances.

But some of Jesus' calls come in unusual circumstances. In the ninth chapter of John's Gospel, we read the account of a man becoming a disciple of Jesus because he was the recipient of a miracle. Born blind, he does not ask for a cure, but Jesus opens his eyes after a discussion with his disciples as to whether the man's blindness has been caused by sin. In the following verses, the man refuses to get into a theological discussion with the Pharisees, but sticks stubbornly to his point - he was blind before he met Jesus, and now he can see. Because he refuses to go along with the Pharisees, he is thrown out of the synagogue. Then Jesus finds him again, and asks for a profession of faith from him.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered and said, "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he." He said, "I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him. (Jn. 9:35-38).

We know no more about this man. We do not know if he becomes one of those who walks with Jesus day after day, but certainly, he expresses his belief ill him very clearly and definitely, and we can assume that he remains a believer thereafter wherever his daily living may take him.

And there is the great and unusual call of Saul described in Acts 9: I - 22. Saul is so sure that he knows the truth and must get rid of this New Christian sect that he sets out to do just that. So intent is he on his mission that Jesus has to knock him to the ground and blind him just to get his attention. And there, blinded and lying on the ground, he hears the words, "Saul, Saul; why are you persecuting me?" And then the immense revelation, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do." And so Saul is forced into a three-day retreat, made in blindness and fasting, before Ananias is sent to restore his sight. To Ananias is made known the greatness of Saul's call: "Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites" (v. 15). Then, Acts tells us, after his sight is restored and he is baptized, he begins "at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God" (v. 20).
Saul, later known as Paul, becomes the great Apostle to the Gentiles but his call comes in an experience of being struck helpless that he may know that the way of which he is so sure is not, in fact, what God wants of him, that the Lord will work through him, not because of his strength, but because of his weakness and surrender in that weakness.

There are differences too in the response that Jesus wants from those he calls. The twelve apostles are to give up everything (cf. Luke 5:11) and walk with him day in and day out, until his Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Then they will be responsible for the immense ministry of the spread of the Gospel throughout the world- amore-than-full-time task. Paul's life takes on a 180-degree turn after his conversion experience when he, who had originally been thoroughly zealous to do away with this Christian sect now begins at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

All who heard him were astounded and said, "Is not this the man who in Jerusalem ravaged those who call upon this name, and came here expressly to take them back in chains to the chief priests?" But Saul grew all the stronger and confounded (the) Jews who lived in Damascus, proving that this is the Messiah (Acts. 9:20-22).

The woman at the well converts a whole village, but then we hear no more about her. Presumably, she goes back to live her ordinary life in the village with the great difference that now Jesus has revealed himself to her, and she no longer lives a life of sin. Similarly, we hear no more about the man who received his sight, but his profession of faith is so profound (In. 9:35 - 38) that we can assume that he too lives in faith and belief for the rest of his life. In Mk. 5, we read of the man possessed by multiple devils who is so violent that he terrorizes the whole neighborhood. When he is exorcised by Jesus, he pleads to be allowed to remain with him, but he would not permit him but told him instead, "Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you." Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed (Mk. 5:19-20).
This man's vocation is not to walk geographically with Jesus, but to take his message and spread the Good News throughout his own home area and among his own people.

The Jesus who calls us may make himself known in unlikely forms. The woman at the well first sees Jesus simply an unusual Jew who breaks two taboos simultaneously. 1) He, a man, speaks in public to her, a woman whom he does not know, and 2) he, a Jew, speaks to her, a Samaritan, and enters into extended conversation with her. But, in her encounter with him, he leads her step by step to discover that he is not just an unusual Jew, but the Messiah for whom both Jews and Samaritans have been waiting. [...]

Conclusion: As we seek, then, to follow God's call, the New Testament points the way for us. We may expect to hear God calling us to one way of life or another when we are deep in prayer. However, the call may be coming to us in the very ordinary situations of our lives. On the other hand, the call may come to some in very unusual circumstances, which impact us for the rest of our lives. And as Jesus calls us, he is looking for a very personal response from each one of us - we are not all called to serve him in the same way. Additionally, he will not always show himself as we expect to see him. We may find him in the seemingly very ordinary people with whom we come in contact. Let us be alert, then, for the presence of the Lord in our lives and for the call to serve him, as he wants us to do.

Sr. Kathleen McDonagh, IWBS