1st
Reading: Ephesians 2: 19-22
God has appointed
apostles so that his people's needs will be served
So then you are no
longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also
members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole
structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom
you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
Gospel:
Luke 6:12-19
Before selecting his
twelve apostles, Jesus spent a night in prayer on the mountainside
Now during those days
he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he
also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew and
James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and
James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of
James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
He came down with them
and stood on a level place, with great crowd of his disciples and great
multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the cost of Tyre and Sidon.
They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who
were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying
to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
MEDITATIONS
AND REFLECTIONS ON THE READINGS
Fr. Mark Link, Sj in
his homily book described Christians in three models. The first model is,
there are those who are like rafts, they are basically Christians in name only.
They follow Jesus when someone pulls or pushes them. Second model is, there are
those who are like sailboats, that is, they follow Jesus only in fair and sunny
conditions. In stormy weather they go in
all directions that the winds and waves dictate. Third model is, there are
those who are like tugboats, they follow Jesus regardless of the weather. They
go in his direction in fair or foul weather. They travel slowly indeed but
always straight.
Examples of a tug boat
are the feast of the two apostles of Jesus, Simon and Jude, we are celebrating
today. From historical point of view, Simon was a simple Galilean and a brother
of Jesus, as in the ancient times called one's close relatives: aunts, uncles,
first cousins. He was one of Jesus first four cousins, with James the Less,
Jude, and Joseph, all of them were sons of Mary the wife of Alpheus or
Cleophas. According to the tradition, Cleophas was the brother of St. Joseph,
the husband of Mary. All the sons of this family were raised at Nazareth near
the Holy Family ( See Matthew 13:53-58) Simon, Jude and James were called by
our Lord to be Apostles, pillars of His Church, and Joseph the Just was his
loyal disciple.
Simon was also called
the Zealot. The Zealots were a Jewish sect which represented an extreme brand
of Jewish nationalism. This was a group whose philosophy in life includes
violence as the means to achieve the goal. However, Jesus called someone who
was closely connected with this group. Simon preached in Egypt and Mesopotamia,
Mauritania ( Spain) leaving behind him the fertile hills of Galilee, where he
had been engaged in the healthful cultivation of the vineyards and olive
gardens.
St. Jude, on the other
hand, is popularly known as the patron saint of hopeless cases and the refuge
of impossible dreams. His patronage of hopeless cases and impossible dreams
traditionally derives from confusion by many early Christians between Jude and
Judas; not understanding the difference between the names, they never prayed
for Jude's help and devotion to him became something of a lost cause. But he
was one of the twelve apostles whose life we hardly know. We only hear him when
his name was included among the twelve apostles and when his name is mentioned
as among the brethren of Jesus. As we know that he was the son of Cleophas, who
died as a martyr and Mary who stood at the foot of the Cross and who anointed
Christ's body after death. He was the brother of Saint James the Lesser. He was
the nephew of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph and therefore, a blood
relative of Jesus Christ, and reported to look a lot like Him. He may have been
a fisherman. St. Jude too left us a short but powerful epistle, written after
the death of his brother James, bishop of Jerusalem, and addressed to the new
Christians being tempted by false brethren and heretics.
Choosing
the twelve
It is only Luke who
tells us, as we read in today's gospel, that, before he chose the twelve, Jesus
spent the whole night in prayer to God. This was a decision he prayed about;
his choice of the twelve came out of his prayer. Indeed, Luke emphasizes that
Jesus prayed before all the key moments of life- Just after his baptism, just
before he set his passion and death; on the cross just before his death. It an
invitation that we will often find ourselves praying at important moments in
our own lives too. At such moments, we recognize our need guidance and strength
from above. Our prayer at such moments does not necessarily mean that
everything will work out perfectly for us. Although Jesus spent the whole night
in prayer before he chose twelve from among the disciples, one of those twelve,
Judas went on betray him. Yet, we can be sure that our prayerful surrender to
the Lord at such times will always create space for him to work, even when
things do not work out as we had hoped.
Ordinary
people in extraordinary work
Those chosen by Jesus
to continue his mission seemed to have been ordinary people. They were non
professionals, who had no wealth or social/economic position. The impression we
get from Jesus' act of choosing these people to be his close associates is that,
he chose them being ordinary, and assigned them tasks that would be performed
by them extraordinarily. Jesus chose them not as they were, but rather what
they would do under his guidance and directions. When we are called by the Lord
we should not excuse ourselves because of our states of life, like thinking
that we have nothing to offer Him. The Lord turns out what ordinary men and
women do to be extraordinary for His greater glory
Hakuna maoni:
Chapisha Maoni