Not how but who

St Matthew, who feast we celebrate today, is one of those disciples whose call is described, albeit briefly, in the Gospels. Follow me, says Jesus, having spotted him at his tax collector's booth; and, we are told, he got up and followed him. Why Matthew? What did Jesus see in him, or in Peter, James or John, that made him choose them out of the hundreds of fisherfolk and tax collectors who came his way? What does he see in each of us? We don't know: all we do know is that Jesus calls the disciples to follow him, and they do; just as he continues to call each one of us to intimacy and discipleship.

Follow me: in all these Gospel accounts of call and immediate, unswerving response, that is more or less all Jesus says. And as the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded us on Monday, in his sermon at the Queen's funeral, he does not tell his disciples how to follow, but, simply, who to follow. 

I recall that when I made the Spiritual Exercises, shortly before making my perpetual vows, I prayed with Jesus' call of his first followers. I encountered a sparseness of detail - but a sparseness which also meant unfettered breadth.  

Follow me...
Where? Everywhere
In what way? In every way 

Because when where and how become constant and uncontained, all that remains is a call to follow Love, to cleave to and learn from Love, in all places, and in all ways. 

What matters is not the how, but the Who; to be followed everywhere, in every way.