All Souls Saturday. The Holy Martyrs Eutropius and His Companions Cleonicus and Basiliscus (286-305)
Great Fast Day 20.
Read
Mark 2:14-17
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
“Follow me.” This is a clear invitation from Our Lord in the form of a command, which, when one thinks of it, is a bit of an odd way to invite someone to do something. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not say to the tax collector “Do you want to spend some time walking with me for a while?” and He does not say “Are you busy? Wanna hang out?” No. Jesus says “Follow me” because He knows that the one to whom He is speaking will exercise their will in such a way as to cooperate with Him, to follow Him, to become His disciple and so He speaks in the imperative. We frequently hear in the Gospel as it is proclaimed in the church, in homilies on the Gospel, and in many other encounters with the Church this call to follow Christ. It is a call that we first respond to in our baptism and it is a call we must respond to every day of our lives. But, it is not simply a call for us to hold onto like the buried talent of the foolish servant (Matt. 25:14-30), or to see it purely as a private call to us from Jesus. No, it is a call that we ourselves must echo when we encounter those who, like us, are called to follow Christ.
Think of those people in your life who perhaps are not Catholics or who have perhaps fallen away from their Catholic faith for many different reasons, but in whom you see a desire to know Jesus Christ, even if it is just a faint glimmer of desire. This desire might display itself in conversations you have with them, or in how they take delight in your faith. Do you echo Christ’s call to follow Him to these people? Do you take a risk and speak to them about your faith? Do you invite them to join you at the Divine Liturgy? These actions can be the first steps in evangelization or in calling someone who has struggled in the faith to encounter again the Holy Spirit within them, to follow Christ as you seek to follow Him.
Often as Ukrainian Greek-Catholics we are unsure as to whether we should evangelize, that such things are better left to Roman Catholics or Protestants. To evangelize is to live our baptism. We must take courage and delight in the beauty of our Byzantine tradition and bring it to others. The Divine Liturgy itself has a tremendous evangelical power, it answers the deep human desire to encounter truth and goodness bound together in beauty. Here, those who may be reaching out to Our Lord Jesus Christ through you may just be waiting for that invitation to encounter Christ in our Church: “Follow me.”