He said to him, "Follow me."
And he got up and followed him.
We are called to follow Jesus without looking back. We may have been tax collectors and sinners before. But we are followers of Jesus now. We cannot go back to the place where we came from trying to find our future. We will only find our future moving forward.
"What if the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land?
Should I then take your son back to the land from which you migrated?"
"Never take my son back there for any reason," Abraham told him.
It is possible to look back on the past, on times when we weren't walking with Jesus, or on times when we weren't as close, and to long for them. Perhaps it seems we had more options open to us that we could choose in pursuit of fulfillment. Here's the thing. No options which are now closed to us would in any measure give fulfillment. God has better plans for us than anything we can even ask for or imagine. We can't find those plans in the past. We can only find them by going forward with him.
The LORD, the God of heaven,
who took me from my father's house and the land of my kin,
and who confirmed by oath the promise he then made to me,
'I will give this land to your descendants'–
he will send his messenger before you,
and you will obtain a wife for my son there.
We are all being prepared for a wedding. It is the marriage feast of the Lamb of God where the bridegroom finally and eternally espouses himself to his bride, the Church. For now we keep moving forward, trusting his word. We see fulfillment, as it were, from a distance.
Rebekah, too, was looking about, and when she saw him,
she alighted from her camel and asked the servant,
"Who is the man out there, walking through the fields toward us?"
"That is my master," replied the servant.
Then she covered herself with her veil.
We see the bridegroom in Scripture and in Sacrament. We draw near to him and he draws near to us. We long more and more for the day when we will see him face to face. This longing is a mark of spiritual maturity. It is the antidote to our desire to look back. Our past cannot save us. Nor can it condemn us. It does not define us. Only the invitation of Jesus to "Follow Me" is meant to define us now.
Visit me with your saving help,
That I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones,
rejoice in the joy of your people,
and glory with your inheritance.
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