Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus commissions the twelve Apostles. Perhaps we can see here a fulfillment of his prophetic invitation to the first disciples: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

“Come after me.” This is a Hebraicism that indicates discipleship. Jesus is not offering a doctrine, a theology, or a set of beliefs. He is offering himself. He’s saying, “Walk in my path; enter into the world that I have opened up.”

“And I will make you fishers of men.” This is one of the best lines in Scripture. Notice the first part of the phrase: “I will make you.” God is the one who makes us from nothing. To live in sin is to live outside of the creative power of God, to pretend that we can make ourselves. How wonderful that he tells us that he will make us!

And what he makes us is always a reflection of himself: a fisher of men. God wants to draw all things and all people into a community around him, in him. He is a fisher of people—and so wants us to be.