They left everything and followed Jesus. The Church honors today the memory of St. Patrick, a fifth century Christian missionary. Born in Great Britain, he was taken prisoner by pirates and at the age of sixteen, found himself in servitude as a shepherd in Ireland. Six years later, he escaped and found his way to France where he received education in monastic schools. After being ordained a bishop, he sent by Pope Celestine I to preach the faith in Ireland. In thirty years, he succeeded in converting the whole country to Christianity. He founded numerous monasteries, the most famous being the one at Armagh. St. Patrick authored the famous Lorica (breastplate) and is the Apostle and patron of Ireland.
Like for any other early Christian missionary, many stories have come up concerning the many obstacles that St. Patrick had to overcome before succeeding in converting Ireland. While such stories remain at the realm of hagiography, they nonetheless point to the difficulties encountered in any given missionary endeavor. For St. Patrick and other missionaries like him who had to bring the Good News to foreign lands, the first and primary difficulty endured was leaving behind everything and everyone they knew. And even though such a decision might have come easily to a majority of the missionaries because of the zeal they had for missions, it is still a sacrifice that accompanies the call as we can clearly see in today’s Gospel reading.
Simon and his companions certainly had a “life” before their encounter with Jesus. They were professional fishermen, had friends and family, and had probably laid down a plan for how they were to spend their lives. All this changed that morning/evening when Jesus entered Simon’s boat and recruited them into the movement he was founding. They left everything and followed him.
St. Patrick followed in the footsteps of the first followers of Jesus. Like them, he hid not count his losses but chose instead to see the gains he was going to make for Jesus. And it was worth it. His devotion to evangelizing Ireland has made him one of the renown saints of the Christian Europe.