Today Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Mark (1: 14-20) in which Jesus, seeing brothers Simon and Andrew casting a net into the lake says, “Follow me and I make you into fishers of men.”

Fr Paul says we could ask ourselves the question, what is going on?

In the Gospel of John, the first two disciples joined Jesus down the Jordan Valley. One of them was Andrew, the other unnamed. Now we get another story, in another place, of another first disciples being called. So, the Church underlines, on two days close together, the importance of Jesus’ new community.

The first thing he does is call disciples. He can’t do everything on his own, and that is the point of the Church. He calls disciples to make a new people, a new Israel. We all have our part to play for Jesus, old, young, middle-aged. Tired old people, busy parents, lively youngsters, each of us can make a unique contribution, especially since Jesus has chosen us himself.

The two accounts of the calling of the disciples shows that at least two different people told the story. When two people tell the same story, there are bound to be variations. The place didn’t matter, or the order in which they were called. The point of the story was the call, the response and the companionship, working together.

Fr Paul says, we are all called so we ask ourselves today – what is Jesus calling ME to do?