Most followers of American popular music know the name Bob Seger. And some of those know that his band is called the Silver Bullet Band. Seger is an icon. And became so after the release of his signature album, Night Moves. In the movie, The Fisher King, Robin Williams’ character is a huge Bob Seger fan and uses his knowledge of the singer to help weed out the sincerity of a therapist hoping to work with him. By most accounts, Bob Seger burst onto the music scene as an “overnight sensation”. But that would be the short sighted view. At the time Night Moves was released, Seger had been performing in and around Detroit, Michigan for almost half of his 30 years. He had “paid his dues” as the saying goes. Just not everyone noticed.
Today’s Gospel tells the tale of Jesus recruiting 4 of His Apostles along the Sea of Galilee (or Lake Gennesaret…Greek word for “Harp”…the shape of the Lake). Matthew tells the story of Jesus calling to the two sets of brothers, Simon/Andrew and James/John, to follow Him and they IMMEDIATELY dropped their nets Meaning that the dropped everything in their lives to accompany the Lord in His ministry. But did they really? This scene from The Chosen depicts Jesus calling the brothers.
What we don’t see in this scene is all that led up to it. Simon-Peter’s struggles with his wife’s infertility. His going into debt. His aligning with the Romans to spy on his fellow Jewish fisherman in order to clear his debt. And his brother Andrew’s telling him, after all this, that he has found The Messiah and for Simon to, “Come and See”. In fact, if you noticed in the above scene, Andrew turn to his brother and exclaims, “I Told You”!
In the scene you may also have noticed Levi/Matthew sitting on the beach with his dog watching the interactions between Jesus and His future Apostles play out. He sees Jesus telling the fisherman to go out further for a catch of fish. He sees Peter doubting Jesus. And he sees the huge catch of fish and Simon’s pronunciation to Jesus that he is a sinner and then agreeing to follow him. Later on in Season 1 we see Matthew being called himself by Jesus and he “immediately” leaves everything to follow. But we all now know that Matthew was a bit primed to make this response by the events at Galilee days before.
I watched the movie “I Can Only Imagine” the other day. It is the story of Bart Millard of the Christian rock band, MercyMe. Bart wrote and performed the most popular Christian song, by the same name. “I Can Only Imagine“. At the outset of the film Bart is being interviewed about the song and is asked by Amy Grant how long it took him to write the song. He responds that it took him 10 minutes for the lyrics and 10 minutes for the tune. Grant, who actually is aware of Bart’s life story at the time she is interviewing him, tells him that it actually took him a lifetime to write this song. The reminder of the movie goes about the task of revealing years of abuse Bart took from his Father and the slow journey on his path of faith leading up to his writing the song. An “overnight” sensation.
Some of you may recall my story of being at the University of Illinois as a new student on campus and living in an apartment. And how I got to know the guy across the hall, Andy Fiedler, and how he became my first friend at the school. One day Andy shares a Gospel passage with me and it changes everything. It was like a light shown on the page and the scales fell from my eyes (to quote a line from the Book of Tobit). I saw the Bible in a whole new light. One can almost say I was “immediately” saved. But the reality is that I had been preparing for that encounter for all my life. From the grace I received at Baptism. To religion classes at Mt. Carmel grammar school and Marist High School. To serving as an altar boy. Conversations with priests and brothers about the faith. Countless masses and reconciliations. All prepared me to say “Yes” when seeing the Gospel message for the “first” time.
I recall when my kids were young that I had the idea that my goal was to prepare them for their lives as adults. So that they could better manage the time when they were on their own. Maybe with families of their own. But looking back, I think what I really was doing was preparing them for the next moment. Rarely do we see ourselves as learning something and thinking, “Yeah. I am going to use that skill when I turn 45” No, we just learn stuff and I think it just gets us ready for the next moment. and that leads to the next moment. and the next. The sum of those moments at any one particular time in our lives make up who we are at that moment. And then we move on to the next. In an earlier reflection I think I referred to these as “Signpost moments”. But only when we look back can we recognize these as signposts.
Bob Seger, Bart Millard, Simon, Andrew, Matthew. Each had their version of “overnight success” Each moment preparing them for the next. May we all prepare for the next moment so that when Jesus calls us, we can immediately respond as Simon did by saying, “Anything you ask of me, I will do”
