“To follow Jesus”: behold the core of the Christian vocation. Jesus invites us to follow him and to accept this invitation is a free decision, which each person must make. To follow Jesus does not simply mean to join a group or to accept certain ideologies. To follow Jesus means, above all, letting oneself be accompanied by a person, to open one’s life to the effect of the meeting with him. To walk with Jesus means to let each and every one of his words and gestures penetrate our heart and elicit those questions and attitudes that will change our life. Letting oneself be accompanied by Jesus means being ready to take up his options and to live an experience of fraternity based on the common condition of the sons of the same Father.
To follow Jesus demands the readiness to accept the cross when it is necessary for the eradication of evil in our world. To be with Jesus means to seek, above all, the Kingdom of God and its justice and to entrust the rest to the providential love of the Father (cf. Mt 6, 33).
Jesus is faithful to his word and never abandons those who have followed him. In fact, it is he who always calls and invites because he always wants us with him. Thus, he is waiting for us at the end of the journey to share with us the blessing and the love of the Father forever. The Christian vocation goes beyond the time we can calculate: it opens us to a communion with Jesus that knows no limit in time or in intensity, and through him, with all our brothers and sisters. The experience of a true universal fraternity, which we all deeply long for within our hearts, is the gift which we will relish if we continue to walk with him.