Calling Disciples in the Land of Death

As Americans, we like choice. We want to chose what we do, how we do it, and when to do it. Included in all of this is education. When it comes to college, we want to chose what to study and who’s going to teach us. But, as we’ll see in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus bucks this tradition. He doesn’t let Simon, Andrew, James, and John chose him. Instead, he choses them. In today’s episode, we’ll see how Jesus’s calling of his disciples is a journey into death and exile. We’ll also see how the “Calling the Disciples” is best represented, not by an image of fisherman in a boat responding to Jesus, but by the Descent into Hades icon!