THE PEOPLE THAT WALKED IN DARKNESS January 25, 2026

After His Baptism, Our Lord began His public ministry by preaching in Galilee, called by the Prophet Isaiah the land of the “people that walked in darkness”, on account of the fact that, although they were Jews, the Galileans lived beyond Samaria, whose people were apostates from the true Jewish religion, and worshipped false gods. So the Galileans were almost cut off from Judea and Jerusalem, the heartlands of the true faith of the Jews, the land of David and the city of the Temple.

     Our Lord is seen by St. Matthew, (whose Gospel we are now reading on Sundays in Ordinary Time), as beginning His public ministry far away from Jerusalem in His home district of Galilee, and gradually working His way down through Samaria towards Jerusalem where He will consummate His work by His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

     Yet it is of the “people who walked in darkness” that Isaiah went on to say that they have “seen a great light”. This prophecy foretold that the Galileans would have the privilege of being the first to hear the Son of God preach the Kingdom in their midst and, in-deed, Our Lord was known in Jerusalem as “the Galilean”.

    Follow Me!

     Right from the moment He began His ministry, our Lord did not work alone, but called others to join Him. We hear in to-day’s Gospel how the first He called to follow Him were the fishermen brothers, Simon and Andrew. Simon was to become known as Peter, the “Rock”. Then Jesus called another two fishermen brothers to follow Him: James and John, the sons of Zebedee—who was clearly a person of some fame since the evangelist not only gives us his name, but also tells us that he had men working for him as well as his two sons. Jesus told all four of these recruits that He would make them into “fishers of men”. God does not call us without the assistance of others.                 ~  Fr. Paul Dobson.