Today, in the gospel passage (Luke 6: 12-16,) we read about the call of the 12 apostles of Jesus which took place after Jesus had prayed. Each apostle had a separate and unique vocation. My vocation, your vocation, is a special call. We must never forget that God calls, and the mission is His.
Saint Paul in the first reading (Ephesians 2: 19-22) asked us never to forget the message of the gospel we received through apostolic tradition. By apostolic tradition, he means what we received through the teachings of Jesus, passed down to us from the “eyewitnesses,” the apostles and their successors. This ipso facto means that you and I share in the apostolic ministry of the apostles. Hence, we must fulfill the “command” of Jesus to “go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news.” Thus, we are missionaries of Jesus. We are to live out our call by proclaiming the gospel to our sisters and brothers.
Do you feel like a missionary?
Today, we remember two of the twelve apostles, Jude and Simon.
Jude is named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except of course where all the apostles are mentioned.
Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them he is called “the Zealot.” The Zealots were a Jewish sect that represented an extreme of Jewish nationalism. For them, God alone was their king, and any payment of taxes to the Romans, the very domination of the Romans, was a blasphemy against God.
We are, individually and collectively called to be “missionary” disciples.” And in this way, the responsorial psalm from today will apply to us as much as it has applied to those who came before us: “Their message goes out throughout all the world”
Have a wonderful Week
