The theme of this past Sunday's Gospel was expressed by Jesus' words to his first followers. "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men." It is the call to discipleship and the call to mission. Effective mission cannot occur unless one has been first properly discipled. Even though the disciples were sent into experiential ministry on occasion, they spent the majority of their three years of formation learning how to be intimate disciples.

Reflect on our call to be a disciple. It began at the moment we were baptized. We were called to follow Jesus, to be formed by Jesus. From that moment on until now, we hopefully have been developing as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ with the assistance of the grace of the Holy Spirit and the love of the Father. Jesus discipled them and us as he was discipled by the Father and the Spirit in his humanity. As he grew in wisdom, age and grace, so hopefully have we. At the heart of Jesus' human formation was growing in intimacy with the Father. This is to be the heart and foundation of our formation as disciples. Without this we would only be functionaries, not sons and daughter, but hired hands. What is the level of our discipleship at the present moment?