A few years ago, a group of Catholic filmmakers in Brooklyn, Grassroots Films, created a short movie about vocations called “Fishers of Men.” It takes its title from the gospel passage we just heard, weaving together interviews, music and images to show, in a dramatic way, the heroism and heart of the priesthood. It’s a very inspiring look at what it means to give your life to God, to become a “fisher of men.”

It reminds me that very often this passage from Mark is used as a springboard for discussing vocations to the religious life.

But reading the gospel this morning, I think it has broader applications – and really speaks in a very profound way to all of us.

This gospel is about something all of us are involved in right here, right now. Yes, it’s about answering The Call – but in ways we may not realize. I’m not speaking about becoming a priest or religious or dropping everything to go live in a monastery.

I’m speaking about a call that defines who we are, how we live, what we believe. It is the great call of all our lives — the one that attracts us, challenges us, invites us, redeems us.

It is the call to follow — to be a follower of Christ.

To be, in fact, a Christian.

Marks writes that Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, and invited fishermen to join him. And they did. That seems to be the beginning and end of this episode. But there are some other details here.

The first pair he met “abandoned their nets and followed him.”

The second pair “left their father…along with the hired men…and followed him.”

You get the sense here of lives interrupted. Of work left unfinished. Of leaving one part of life to take up another.

It’s notable that these men didn’t do this when it was convenient. They just walked away from a job, a family, security. They left their “comfort zones.” And they set off to follow this itinerant preacher.

The gospel doesn’t explain why. Maybe they wanted something more than fish and brine and days spent at sea. Maybe they were restless, or curious. Maybe their hearts were moved by something they couldn’t define.

Maybe they just couldn’t NOT follow Jesus.

But whatever it was, “they abandoned their nets and followed him.”

They left what they knew – and went into what they didn’t know, to live differently.

Whether we realize it or not, that is the choice facing each of us. All of us are like those first followers of Christ.

Not all of us, of course, are fishermen.

But we all have nets.

Those nets are the world we know and what we are comfortable with. Those things that we’re used to – and that may be keeping us from becoming true followers of Christ.

They are the kind of nets in which we, ourselves, are entangled.

Sin can be a net. So can cynicism.

There is the net of self-interest, or greed, or deception.

It may be the net of bigotry. Of addiction. Of anger.

Or the net of despair, or indifference. Too many of us, I think, get trapped in the net of mediocrity – just settling, just getting by.

But the call of Christ calls us to look deeply at our own habits, and our own hearts. What are the nets in our lives that we need to leave behind? What are the tangled webs that are holding us back?

Are we willing to abandon them – and follow him?

If it seems like a call that is too challenging – a task that is too daunting – there is this other compelling detail from the gospel:

We aren’t alone.

When Jesus called those fishermen, they didn’t leave the lives they knew alone. They went in pairs. Simon and Andrew, James and John.

The beautiful message is this: being a follower of Christ is not a solitary act. Being a Christian involves another. Many others, in fact. The early Christians understood that: it was about celebrating Christ’s life, death and resurrection in community. And in communion.

And so they prayed together. They shared the Eucharist together. They traveled together. They preached together.

Together, they were persecuted.

And together, they were martyred.

In community, they found sustenance and strength during times of great joy, and great suffering.

And so do we.

This morning, we continue what they began. That first call of the fishermen, two by two, has echoed around the world, many times over. And so believers gather as we are gathering today, in community, to share together our love for God, our love for one another, our passion for the gospel message. We proclaim what we believe, and we lift our eyes to a miracle: God in a piece of elevated bread.

The body of Christ is uplifted.

And so are we.

But it will be meaningless if we just go home and go on with our lives.

Like Simon and Andrew and James and John, we are called to leave our old ways of doing things, our familiar and comfortable ways of living.

Ultimately, we are called to walk away … and follow Him. It is a call to sacrifice, to surrender, to trust, to change.

The kingdom of God is at hand, Jesus proclaimed. It can be ours.

But first, my friends, we need to abandon our nets.