In the Gospel today, Matthew symbolically presents Jesus as a great light for a people who have lived in darkness and the shadow of death and oppression. Jesus offers the hope of an alternative reign and invites his hearers to expand their horizons, for the all-embracing empire or kingdom “of the heavens” has come near. He then calls four fishermen to follow him, to join him on his mission of proclaiming the empire or reign “of the heavens”. The verb “to follow” is an invitation to live out in their lives/in our lives the pattern of Jesus’ life. They “immediately” leave their boat and their father and follow him. Later in the story we find they still have their boat, an indication that, at some levels, the story is to be read symbolically. At times we need to distance ourselves from family expectations for the sake of the gospel. At times we have to decentre our material possessions even while we affirm the goodness of their materiality and their significance for the work of the mission. We are all invited to turn our lives around and to live out in our lives the pattern of Jesus’ life.