REFLECTIONS TODAY
The mission of Jesus must go on even after he will be physically gone from the earth. At this point of the Gospel narrative, Jesus perceives the mounting pressure his detractors put on his way and that he will soon be gone. He brings this foreboding before his Father and spends the night in prayer, after which he chooses Twelve from among his disciples and calls them apostles (Greek apostoloi, “sent”).
The Twelve Apostles chosen will now be trained and formed by Jesus Master himself in the way of sensitivity to others’ needs and in total giving of self. The call to participate in Jesus’ mission is not a privilege but a self-less service. It will demand total trust in the power of God, hence prayer is of utmost importance.
True, it will at times drain our human powers, but it is only so that in our nothingness we will know that it is God acting, his Spirit re-creating, his Son Jesus saving and bringing integral healing to all. If Jesus invites and calls you to share in his mission, will you be ready to respond?
Gospel • Luke 6:12-19
Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.
Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.