We just concluded the Christmas season. Now we are in ordinary time. In today’s gospel, Jesus saw Andrew and Peter, James and John, casting their nets. He encountered them amid their daily work—in their ordinary lives.

Besides the ordinariness of the setting, it is the response, and in particular the order of what Andrew and Peter did, that challenges me today: “They left their nets and followed him.”

It is challenging because it is all too easy for me to hang onto the ordinary routines of my life. There is security in that. I get up, go to daily Mass, go to work, return emails and calls, work on projects, go home, sleep, repeat.

Almost daily, there are interruptions (or should I say invitations?) to break my ordinary routine. I may be willing to follow, but I want to drag everything with me. I tend to be like the rich young man who shows up nine chapters later in Mark’s Gospel. When he finally understood the demands of the gospel, his face fell because he could not let go.

My wife and I are blessed with four boys. When they were little, I loved to place my finger in their tiny little hands. They would let go of their blanket, pacifier, or favorite toy, open their hand and grab onto my finger.

As an adult, I still clutch my figurative security blankets. Today Jesus says, “Come, follow me.” When I hear these words, I pause. I overthink it. I hesitate. Am I willing to leave my nets and follow?

Near the beginning of this new year, I pray that Sts. Andrew and Peter can give us the courage, the trust, and the humility, to put down our nets, to open our hands and our hearts, and to follow him.