In the last chapter of his Autobiography, entitled “The Man with a Golden Key”, GK Chesterton wrote: “When people ask me, or indeed anybody else, “Why did you join the Church of Rome?” the first essential answer, if it is partly an elliptical answer, is, “To get rid of my sins.”
Sacrament of Penance
Repent, For the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand
The immediate response to the gaze of Jesus Christ by Peter, Andrew, James and John signals the fact that a radical change took place within their hearts. That moment, there on the shore of the sea, was no ordinary moment. The fishermen were not simply willing to let go of their way of life and the past, but actively desired to do so. More to the point, they hungered for a new life. They sensed, by God’s grace working in their souls, that this new life is itself Jesus Christ.