Monday

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Monday, 27 January 2025 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of an important core tenet of our Christian faith, that is we all believe in the salvation that has been given and reassured to us through Christ, the Son of God, Who has manifested the perfect love and compassion of God in the flesh, having been made incarnate in the flesh, through the means of His Mother, the Blessed, ever Virgin, Mary, the Mother of God and the Mother of the Saviour of the whole world. And we are reminded through those passages from the Sacred Scriptures of the nature of the Sacrifice and Offering which Christ our Lord, our High Priest had offered on our behalf from the Altar of His Cross, as He willingly laid down His life in exchange for our own lives, so that by His suffering and death, He might bring us all into the assurance of eternal life.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews in which the author of this Epistle, widely considered to be St. Luke the Evangelist, spoke about the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ, Our Saviour has offered at the moment of His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross, the one and only singular offering and sacrifice needed for the salvation of the whole entire world, for the past, present and the future. And this is something that all of us as Christians believe in, that the Lord has suffered and died, offering His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood as the Lamb of God to atone for our many, innumerable sins and faults, and this perfect sacrifice is the only one that can redeem all of us, once and for all.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews directed these words to the Jewish people, both those who have believed in Christ and likely also those who have not believed in Him and were still unconvinced that Jesus was truly the Messiah sent by God. That was why the author spent a lot of time and effort explaining the actions that the Lord Jesus had done, in why He had to suffer and face persecutions, which were actually the fulfilment of everything that the prophets like Isaiah and many others had spoken about Him. At that time, many among the people of God held the popular belief that the Messiah would come to liberate all of them from the hands and dominion by their enemies, like the Romans and others such as the Herodian rulers. Thus, some Jewish people rejected the Lord because of how He has died and was crucified by the Romans.

Then, in addressing the role that the Lord Jesus has taken as the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of Sacrifice and at the same time also as the High Priest offering that perfect offering of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, by comparing to the practice according to the Law of God which required the people to constantly, repeatedly and regularly offering their sacrifices through the priests to God, the offering of animals and other forms of offerings and sacrifices, it was mentioned that Christ’s sacrifice is the one and only sacrifice that is necessary for all of us, for time immemorial, from the past, to the present and the future, right up to the end of time. It means that the sacrifices and offerings of the blood of animals and other forms of sacrifices at the Temple according to the old Law were no longer necessary.

At the same time, as this has been mentioned, I would also like to address the matter of how some who did not believe in our Christian faith and had been misguided by heretical and false beliefs in the past few centuries right up to this day had accused us Christians in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of offering the sacrifice of Christ again and again in the Holy Mass, which is also better known as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This is because it is a core tenet of our faith from the beginning of the Church, from the time of the Lord and His Apostles that the Mass as we all know it today, the Eucharist, the pinnacle of our worship of the Divine, is truly the same sacrifice that Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Saviour, has offered at Calvary at the moment of His Passion, His suffering and death.

However, unlike the false accusations of those who had received the wrong idea and failed to understand the true purpose, significance and meaning of the Holy Mass, the Eucharist and the Lord’s one everlasting sacrifice, offering and Covenant sealed by His Blood and by the breaking of His Body on the Altar of the Cross, all of us as Christians must know and realise that our Christian faith is founded upon this belief that Christ has indeed died once and for all for us, but it is wrong to say that He is being offered again and again, or that the sacrifice is being repeated at every time the Holy Mass is celebrated. That is the result of false ideas, understanding and also even poor catechesis for some among us in the Church who may have believed in the same manner.

This is because just as the Lord’s sacrifice transcends time and space, redeems us all mankind, past, present and future all at once, therefore, just as the Lord Himself has commanded to His disciples ‘Do this in the memory of Me’, and by the authority that He has given to His Church and His Apostles, each and every time we celebrate the Eucharist in the Holy Mass, we are all brought into the mystery of the Lord’s same sacrifice two millennia ago at Calvary, and not a new sacrifice and offering that He makes again for us. It is this same ultimate sacrifice and gift of love that the Lord has presented to all of us through His Son, so that all of us may be saved through Him and everything that He has done out of love for us.

All these disagreements, accusations and disbeliefs, all were caused by none other than the devil himself, who is more than happy to see us all divided and attacking each other, in his constant efforts to lead us astray and to divide us all in the Church of God. This was exactly what the Lord said to the people and to those Pharisees who falsely accused Him of colluding with the evil ones to perform His ministry, works and miracles as we heard in our Gospel passage today. The accusations that He was facing was precisely the works and the efforts of the evil ones, who were no less united in their desire and efforts to see our downfall and destruction, while the people of God bickered and disagreed with one another because of their unbridled ego and pride.

This is a reminder for all of us not to give in to the temptations of pride and other temptations present around us, so that we do not end up falling into the wrong path in life, as those Pharisees and elders of the people had experienced, in their stubbornness to uphold their flawed and mistaken views and ideas thinking that they could not have been wrong in them. They shut the Lord out of their minds and hearts, and hardened them against Him. That is why we need to grow more in our humility and in our ability to trust in the Lord, focusing ourselves on Him and doing everything with the desire to glorify the Lord and not to satisfy our own desires and personal ambitions. As long as we keep this in mind and make the conscious effort to do so, we should be able to remain strong in out faith and commitment to God despite the many trials and challenges we may be facing in our journey.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Angela Merici, a renowned woman and holy servant of God who lived during the Renaissance era Europe, in the region of northern Italy today, where she was orphaned at a young age, and later on she went to commit herself to the Lord, rejecting the pursuits and offers from those men who were mesmerised by her great beauty. She even went to the extent of placing dirt on her face in order to discourage those suitors and all others who came to her seeking her beauty. She henceforth devoted herself to a life of prayer and contemplation, gathering together like-minded women committed to the upbringing, training and education of young women, many of whom at that time did not have proper guidance, upbringing and education, which made them to be often at the mercy of the society and the situation around them.

This was the beginning of what would become known as the Company of Saint Ursula, also more commonly and well known as the Ursuline sisters, which until today are well-known for their dedication to the educatiion of young girls and the proper upbringing of those whom had been placed under their care. All these became possible thanks to the dedication, the great efforts and works that St. Angela Merici had shown throughout her life, which inspired many other women in their desire to follow the Lord and to show the path to many others towards God and His salvation. Therefore, each and every one of us as Christians should also follow in the great examples of this great woman and saint, doing our best at each and every moments in our lives to reject the false glory and pleasures of the world, and instead seek the true joy and glory that can be found in Christ our Lord alone.

May the Lord our most loving God and Father continue to guide us all towards His Presence, and may He continue to strengthen and empower each and every one of us in our everyday living and journey that we may truly be the worthy disciples and followers of God, proclaiming His light and salvation to all the peoples of the whole world, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 27 January 2025 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)

Mark 3 : 22-30

At that time, the teachers of the Law, who had come from Jerusalem, said, “He is in the power of Beelzebul : the chief of the demons helps Him to drive out demons.”

Jesus called them to Him, and began teaching them by means of histories, or parables. “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a nation is divided by civil war, that nation cannot stand. If a family divides itself into groups, that family will not survive.”

“In the same way, if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he will not stand, he is finished. No one can break into the house of a strong man in order to plunder his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then indeed, he can plunder his house.”

“Truly, I say to you, every sin will be forgiven humankind, even insults to God, however numerous. But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven : he carries the guilt of his sin forever.” This was their sin when they said, “He has an unclean spirit in Him.”

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Monday, 27 January 2025 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)

Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love nor His faithfulness to Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.

With melody of the lyre and with music of the harp. With trumpet blast and sound of the horn, rejoice before the King, the Lord!

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Monday, 27 January 2025 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)

Hebrews 9 : 15, 24-28

So Christ is the Mediator of a new covenant or testament. His death made atonement for the sins committed under the old testament, and the promise is handed over to all who are called to the everlasting inheritance.

Christ did not enter some sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself. He is now in the presence of God on our behalf. He had not to offer Himself many times, as the High Priest does : he who may return every year, because the blood is not his own.

Otherwise He would have suffered many times from the creation of the world. But no; He manifested Himself only now at the end of the ages, to take away sin by sacrifice, and, as humans die only once and afterwards are judged, in the same way Christ sacrificed Himself once to take away the sins of the multitude. There will be no further question of sin when He comes again to save those waiting for Him.

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Monday, 20 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Sebastian, Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are reminded that each and every one of us as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people, each and every one of us are called to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to the path that God has called us to walk through, following the examples of the Lord Himself, Our Saviour and High Priest Who has obeyed so perfectly the will of His Heavenly Father so that by His perfect obedience, He may show all of us mankind the path towards eternal life and salvation. He has become the perfect Man, the New Adam and the New Man that all of us as Christians are called to follow and embody in our own lives, embracing wholeheartedly our Christian faith in everything that we say and do at all times.

In our first reading today, the continuation from the discourse by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews on the nature and the works of the Messiah, in which the author continued to elaborate on the role which Christ as the Messiah had played in the story of our salvation. As the author was writing to the audience composed of the Jewish people, likely both those who have believed in the Lord and also those who have not yet believed, he explained in detail throughout this Epistle Who the true and real identity of Jesus Christ was, the One Whom the Jewish leaders and authorities had rejected, oppressed and then handed over to the Romans to be crucified. This Epistle to the Hebrews instead presented this crucifixion as part of the plan of the Lord in saving all of His people just as He has promised and prophesied through His prophets like the prophet Isaiah.

The account from this Epistle further highlighted the actions that Christ has done at the pinnacle of His salvific mission, in offering on our behalf the perfect offering for all of our multitudes of sins, in the manner how the priests of the Israelites offered sacrificial offerings for the people of God. Those priests had to first offer sacrifices for themselves first because they themselves were sinners and had to atone for their own sins first, before offering the sacrifices on behalf of the people who came to them seeking their help. But it is different for the case of the Lord Jesus, the One and only True High Priest of all because He is perfect and without any taint of sin, and hence had no need to offer sin offering for Himself.

And most amazingly, while He Himself is blameless and without any fault, He chose willingly to bear the blame and the punishment assigned to Him, imposed on Him by the Jewish leaders and authorities, who blamed on Him the fault of rebellion and blasphemy against God, that He was handed over to the Romans to be crucified. Yet, as those who were familiar with the Scriptures would realise, this persecution and suffering of the Messiah that God had sent to be with His people has been foretold by the prophets, and it was by this willing sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all, offered His own Most Precious Body and Blood on the Altar of His Cross, by which He has purchased all of us, once and for all, the redemption for all of our innumerable sins.

Then from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the words of the Lord Jesus against those people who questioned Him on why those Pharisees and the disciples of St. John the Baptist carried out fasting and other pious practices but His disciples did not do the same. This was because at that time the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were particularly strict in how they interpreted the Law of God, requiring all the people to follow the Law strictly, and one of them was the requirement for fasting, and how they ought to fast in the right manner. However, they placed so much emphasis and time focusing on how they observed and practiced the Law, that they ended up neglecting to follow the Lord faithfully and with God at the centre of all things.

The Lord also presented to them all the parable of the new wine and wineskin, old wine and wineskin, as well as new cloth and old cloth. This parable is meant to highlight first of all the fact that the Lord’s coming revealed truths about the Lord and His Law, His intentions and desire for His people, all of us, to fulfil them all perfectly and to correct the erroneous ways that His will, His Law and commandments have been received by the people, particularly by those who interpreted the Law and practiced them. Secondly, it is also a reminder for us that if we truly want to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and completely, then there is a need for us all to follow His path and reject the old path of worldliness that we may be familiar with. Otherwise, if we do not do so, we are no better than hypocrites.

Today, the Church also celebrates the feast of not just one but two amazing men of God whose faith and dedication to Him should be reminders for all of us to be truly faithful and committed as well in our own lives, in our obedience to God and His cause, and in doing whatever we can so that we may imitate their good and faithful lives, and realise how being good Christians may often require us to make sacrifices and to be ready and prepared to face challenges, trials and even oppressions for our faith in God. Pope St. Fabian and St. Sebastian both have suffered for their faith in God, being persecuted for their belief in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all. However, they remained firmly faithful even despite all those sufferings and becoming for us great inspirations and role models to follow.

Pope St. Fabian was born into a noble Roman family during the third century after the birth of Christ, at a time of great challenges and turmoil for the Church and the faithful as they often encountered harsh persecutions and oppressions from the Romans who treated Christians and their faith as those who deserved to be punished and killed, unless they abandoned their faith. His election as Pope was truly remarkable in the sense that when the previous Pope, his predecessor passed away and the election for the successor took place, the future Pope St. Fabian was actually just visiting, and amidst all the competition between all the influential candidates at that time, no one minded Pope St. Fabian at all until a dove miraculously descended upon him, and the whole assembly acclaimed him as the new Pope. He would go on to carry out many great deeds and works as Pope.

Meanwhile, not much was known about the early life of St. Sebastian, but according to Church tradition and his hagiography, he was a young man who joined the Roman military during the time of the reign of the then Emperor Carinus, and then under his successors, Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Those two Emperors were notorious for their very harsh and terrible persecution against Christians, but St. Sebastian managed to become one of the captains of the Praetorian Guards, the guards of the Emperor himself. In that capacity, he managed to help several of the captive and persecuted Christians, and even managed to convert some of those involved in the arrest and persecution of Christians.

Eventually, after the relatively long reign of about fourteen years for Pope St. Fabian and after the clandestine efforts in helping Christians and converting others for St. Sebastian, both of them were found out in their efforts and faith as Christians, with Pope St. Fabian being persecuted by the new Roman Emperor Decius, who unlike the previous Emperors that had been more tolerant of Christianity, he was a hardliner, arrested Pope St. Fabian and executed him for his faith as an example to all the other Christians. St. Sebastian meanwhile was persecuted by another harsh persecutor, the Emperor Diocletian, who was particularly displeased that one of his own Praetorian captains was a Christian. He was shot with many arrows, but miraculously survived and cared for by a Christian widow, before being martyred after he rebuked the Emperor publicly for his actions against Christians.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the essence of what we have heard in our Scripture passages today and the lives of those saints whose memory we commemorate is that we must appreciate the great love, compassion and kindness which God has given to us so generously through His Son, and therefore, just as He has suffered in doing so, being rejected by the world and all those who dwelled and remained in sin, and how Pope St. Fabian, St. Sebastian and many other saints and holy men and women of God had done, let us all realise the challenges, difficulties and sufferings that we may face amidst our lives as Christians in this world today. Let us also be ready to live lives that are truly worthy of God at all times so that we may be good role models and inspirations ourselves to one another. Amen.

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Monday, 20 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Sebastian, Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Mark 2 : 18-22

At that time, one day, when the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting, some people asked Jesus, “Why is it that both the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast, but Yours do not?”

Jesus answered, “How can the wedding guests fast while the Bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the Bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the day will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.”

“No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear away from the old cloth, making a worse tear. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins, and then both the wine and the skins would be lost. But new wine, new skins!”

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Monday, 20 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Sebastian, Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 109 : 1, 2, 3, 4

The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand till I make Your foes Your footstool.”

From Zion the Lord will extend Your mighty sceptre and You will rule in the midst of Your enemies.

Yours is royal dignity from the day You were born in holy majesty. Like dew from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten You.

The Lord has sworn, and He will not take back His word : “You are a Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

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Monday, 20 January 2025 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Sebastian, Martyr, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Hebrews 5 : 1-10

Every High Priest is taken from among mortals and appointed to be their representative before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. He is able to understand the ignorant and erring for he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he is bound to offer sacrifices for his sins as well as for the sins of the people.

Besides, one does not presume to take this dignity, but takes it only when called by God, as Aaron was. Nor did Christ become High Priest in taking upon Himself this dignity, but it was given to Him by the One Who says : You are My Son, I have begotten You today. And in another place : You are a Priest forever in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

Christ, in the days of His mortal life, offered His sacrifice with tears and cries. He prayed to Him Who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His humble submission. Although He was Son, He learnt through suffering what obedience was, and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for those who obey Him. This is how God proclaimed Him Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

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Monday, 13 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hilary, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of the Ordinary Time, the first of the two seasons of the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year, with this first season lasting from now until the beginning of the season of Lent. This Ordinary time and season is however by no means ‘ordinary’ lest we misunderstood the meaning of this period and time. The word Ordinary here comes from the word ‘Ordinal’ which means numbered, from the fact that the Sundays of this season are numbered in sequence.

That is why this period of time after the time of Christmas and before the beginning of the Lenten season should not be a period of inactivity and passivity, or a time when we ignore our obligations and calling to do what is right and appropriate for us to do as God’s holy and beloved people, as His disciples and followers, to whom God had entrusted His Church and His missions in our world today. All of us should instead be active in embracing the many opportunities that God has granted to us, the chances we have been given so that we may touch the lives of others in a good way.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle to the Hebrews in which the author of this Epistle spoke about the coming of the salvation of God which has been fulfilled and completely revealed through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who had been sent into this world to be the Redeemer of all mankind, restoring all of us back to the state of grace, and the author also revealed to us that this Saviour was truly the Son of God, Who has been incarnate into the flesh, assuming our humanity, human nature and existence, becoming the Son of Man, appearing in our midst to lead us all into salvation in God.

And as the title of this Epistle suggests to us, the words of the author of this Epistle, commonly attributed to St. Luke the Evangelist, they are directed to the Jewish people, to whom the Lord was first sent to, to fulfil everything which the Lord has promised to all of His people throughout history. The author spoke of the One Whom the Jewish people has encountered, Jesus Christ Himself, Who has come, showing the great Wisdom of God in His various words and teachings among them with authority, and the power which God has exercised through Him, in His various miracles and wonders.

Therefore, the author of this Epistle to the Hebrews proclaimed to the Jewish community, both to strengthen the faith of those who have believed in Christ, and also to convince and persuade those who have not yet believed in Him, that the Lord Jesus Christ, was indeed the Holy One Whom God had sent into this world to lead everyone into salvation and eternal life. It is also a reminder for all of us Who it is that we have served, and the One through Whom our salvation has come from, what we have celebrated earlier on in Christmas, and which we now need to proclaim courageously in our world today.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which the account about the time when the Lord Jesus called His first disciples, the four fishermen of the lake of Galilee, namely St. Peter and his brother St. Andrew, and also the two sons of Zebedee, St. James and St. John, were told to us, and we heard how God called them all to be the ones to lead mankind to Him and His salvation, to become the fishers of men. And that was what they would be doing henceforth, committing themselves to the good cause of the Lord.

Hence, all of us are reminded through what we have heard in that passage today that we are all called to the service of God, to do what the Lord has entrusted to us, His gifts, talents, abilities and all the opportunities that He has provided to each one of us. All of us as Christians have been tasked to proclaim the Lord and His truth in our communities today, and to live in a truly Christian manner, putting the Lord our God ever at the centre and heart of our whole lives and existence, so that we will always do our best in glorifying Him by our lives, and showing Him to many others around us.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Hilary, also known as St. Hilary of Poitiers, who was the Bishop of Poitiers during the late era of the Roman Empire. He was born from a pagan family who embraced Christianity, and was raised with good and comprehensive education in the classics and philosophy. At that time, the Church was bitterly divided by those who supported the then very popular and powerful Arian heresy which denied the equality of Christ the Son of God with the Father, and those who upheld the true, orthodox teaching of the faith.

St. Hilary of Poitiers was elected to be the new bishop of Poitiers during that time of division and confusion among the faithful, and immediately the new bishop committed himself to oppose the false teachings of Arianism, and he worked hard to restore order and unity to the faithful under his care in Poitiers, while also doing a lot of work in the wider Church to oppose the influence of Arianism and other heresies, as well as ministering to his flock to the best of his abilities. He faced a lot of hardships and difficulties, opposition from those who did not agree with him, and even exile by the authorities, but he remained firm in his courageous efforts and works for the good of the Church and the faithful.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore follow in the footsteps of St. Hilary and many other holy saints, holy men and women of God, all of whom had devoted themselves, their time and effort to proclaim the truth and Good News of God to others around them, like the Apostles before them. And all of us as Christians are entrusted with the same mission to evangelise and to spread the Good News of God to more and more people all around the world. May the Lord be with us always and may He continue to empower us all in our efforts and good works for His greater glory, and may all of us continue to inspire everyone around us in faith. Amen.

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Monday, 13 January 2025 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hilary, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 1 : 14-20

At that time, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee and began preaching the Good News of God. He said, “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe the Good News.”

As Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fish for people.” At once, they abandoned their nets and followed Him.

Jesus went a little farther on, and saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee; they were in their boat mending their nets. Immediately, Jesus called them and they followed Him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men.