Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Matthew (4: 12-17, 23-25) in which Jesus, hearing that John had been imprisoned, began to proclaim the good news of the kingdom throughout Galilee.

Fr Paul says, in today’s gospel we hear of the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. Matthew quotes the scriptures to show that they are being fulfilled.

Jesus begins his ministry proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is close and that this is the reason for all his activity.  After this he begins to get a team together to help with this mission.

What we miss hearing is that as soon as Simon Peter, Andrew James and John heard Jesus call them – when they heard Jesus tell them to follow him – they left everything at once and followed Jesus, who they had never met before.

Fr Paul invites us to take a moment today to think about how electrifying the power of Jesus – just how charismatic his personality – was that it causes these four people to drop everything and follow him.