Luke 6:12-19

Colossians 2:6-15

Psalm 145:1b-2, 8-9, 10-11

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.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you know me and know the very depths of my heart and being. You know who I am and who I am called to be. Grant me true self-knowledge. Allow me to see myself as you see me.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Call of the Twelve and the Restoration of Israel: Jesus called his disciples after a night in prayer. This was a momentous decision that symbolically reconstituted the twelve tribes of Israel. Many of the prophets envisioned that the twelve tribes and the Kingdom of David would be restored, but it was less clear how this would happen. Calling twelve disciples to be apostles was an important stage in the restoration process. A disciple is a student; an apostle is someone who is sent out. The Apostles will spend time with Jesus and learn from him. Over the course of three years, he will teach them about the mysteries of the Kingdom, the fulfillment of the Old Law, and how to govern the Church, the seed and beginning of the Kingdom, in a spirit of humility. After his resurrection and ascension, the Apostles would be sent out to the ends of the earth to gather not only the lost tribes of Israel into the Kingdom, but also the Gentiles from the nations. 

2. He Healed Them All: In the Gospel, Luke is also building up to Jesus’s “Sermon on the Plain.” Luke points out that there were people from Judea and Jerusalem, and also from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. He does this to indicate the universality of Jesus’ message. The ministry of Jesus and the Apostles will begin primarily with Israel, but will then go out to all the world. Even Paul, in his ministry, would follow this same path when he would go to a city for the first time. If there were a synagogue in the city, he would preach there first. And when people began accepting or rejecting his message, he would then turn to the Gentiles. The Christian life is not reducible to a doctrine, philosophy, or moral code. In the Gospel, people were not only taught by Jesus, but also healed. Christianity is a personal and communal encounter with the living Christ. The Church, the Body of Christ, not only teaches, but also heals and sanctifies, especially through the power of the Sacraments.

3. Sharing in Christ’s Life: Paul, in his Letter to the Colossians, also speaks about how they were taught, not an empty, seductive philosophy according to the tradition of men, but were taught to walk with Jesus, be rooted in him, built upon him, and established in the faith. In Christ, the fullness of divinity abides, and we share, through our Baptism, in that divinity. Baptism is our spiritual circumcision, where the stubbornness of our hearts was cut away and the stain of original sin was washed away. Through our Baptism, we were buried with Christ and also raised with Christ. This sacrament gave us new life, forgave our sins, and removed the curses of the Old Covenant. Paul speaks about this when he writes how the bond against us, with its legal claims, has been obliterated. Jesus removed it from our midst and nailed it to the cross.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you knew the strengths and weaknesses of each one of your Apostles. You knew how they would be successful and how they would fail. Enlighten me today to know my strengths and weaknesses, where I have loved you, and where I have chosen to love myself more than you and others.

Living the Word of God: When we sin, we need to place ourselves before the throne of God's mercy and confess our sins with a contrite heart. When others sin against us, we need to show them mercy, imitating the merciful love of our heavenly Father and the merciful heart of Jesus. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.