Today's Gospel (Mt 4:18-22):  As Jesus walked by the lake of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. He said to them, «Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for people». At once they left their nets and followed him.

He went on from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them. At once they left the boat and their father and followed him

Today, is St. Andrew's Day, apostle, a festivity celebrated in a solemn way amongst Eastern Orthodox Christians. He was one of the two young men that met Jesus by the river Jordan and had a long conversation with him. He first found his own brother Simon, and told him «We have found the Messiah» and he brought him to Jesus (cf. Jn 1:41-42). Shortly afterwards, Jesus called these two fishermen brothers, as we read in today's Gospel: «Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for people» (Mt 4:19). In the same village there were two other brothers, James and John, friends and chums of the first ones, and fishermen like them. And Jesus also invited them to follow him. It is nice to see how they leave everything and follow him “at once”, a word that is repeated in both cases. We cannot tell Jesus: “afterwards”, “later on”, “I'm busy now”...

To each one of us —to all Christians— Jesus is also asking every day to place at his service whatever we are and whatever we have —that means to leave everything, not to have anything of our own— so that, while living with him our professional and familial obligations, we may become “fishermen for people”. What does it mean to be “fishermen for people”? A nice answer might be a commentary by St. John Chrysostom. This Father and Doctor of the Church says that Andrew did not know how to explain to his brother Peter who was Jesus and, consequently, he «brought him to the very source of light», that is, Jesus Christ. “To fish men” means to help all those around us, in our family and in our work, to find Christ who is the only light for our route.