The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today remind us of the foundations of our faith in the gifts from God to the first followers of Jesus.
Building the Body
The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians shares our institution by the Spirit as a dwelling-place for God.
* [2:20] Capstone: the Greek can also mean cornerstone or keystone.1
Psalm 19 praises God’s Glory in Creation and the Law.
* [19:4] No speech, no words: the regular functioning of the heavens and the alternation of day and night inform human beings without words of the creator’s power and wisdom.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus chooses the Twelve Apostles.
* [6:13] He chose Twelve: the identification of this group as the Twelve is a part of early Christian tradition (see 1 Cor 15:5), and in Matthew and Luke, the Twelve are associated with the twelve tribes of Israel (Lk 22:29–30; Mt 19:28). After the fall of Judas from his position among the Twelve, the need is felt on the part of the early community to reconstitute this group before the Christian mission begins at Pentecost (Acts 1:15–26). From Luke’s perspective, they are an important group who because of their association with Jesus from the time of his baptism to his ascension (Acts 1:21–22) provide the continuity between the historical Jesus and the church of Luke’s day and who as the original eyewitnesses guarantee the fidelity of the church’s beliefs and practices to the teachings of Jesus (Lk 1:1–4). Whom he also named apostles: only Luke among the gospel writers attributes to Jesus the bestowal of the name apostles upon the Twelve. See note on Mt 10:2–4. “Apostle” becomes a technical term in early Christianity for a missionary sent out to preach the word of God. Although Luke seems to want to restrict the title to the Twelve (only in Acts 4:4, 14 are Paul and Barnabas termed apostles), other places in the New Testament show an awareness that the term was more widely applied (1 Cor 15:5–7; Gal 1:19; 1 Cor 1:1; 9:1; Rom 16:7).3
Chas Kestermeier, S.J. comments that of all of those roles or identities fit us, the one he likes the best because it is the closest to our human experience is that of being a child of God.
The place where we relate best to God made man is in the humanity which we share with Him. But there is also the Firstborn Himself, the son of Mary, in whom all of us are called to be children of the Father. He is the image of what it means to be a child of God but is above all the living God Himself who helps us not to mirror that image but to live and become alive in the same way, with the same life, filled with the same Spirit. And like all children, each of us will become different in how we live out the lives we are given, how we ourselves choose to respond to the love that gave us life. A few of us will be well known, but most of us will be Simons and Judes, true apostles but often enough hidden ones even from ourselves....4
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus chose fishermen and tax collectors to be apostles,” by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.
"It says, 'He called his disciples, and he chose twelve of them,' whom he appointed sowers of the faith, to spread the help of human salvation throughout the world. At the same time, observe the heavenly counsel. He chose not wise men, nor rich men, nor nobles, but fishermen and tax collectors, whom he would direct, lest they seem to have seduced some by wisdom, or bought them with riches, or attracted them to their own grace with the authority of power and nobility. He did this so that the reasoning of truth, not the grace of disputation, should prevail."(excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5.44)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 6:12-16 notes that together with the other apostles, Simon and Jude took the message of the gospel far and wide. In fact, each of us can trace our faith, like a family tree, back to one or more of the apostles.
Today, let’s give thanks for these apostles, as well as for the “apostles” in our own lives. Maybe your “apostles” were your parents who took you to church. Maybe they included a coworker who prayed with you or a friend who encouraged you to return to the faith. They could be the pope or your pastor or the author of a book that helped you grow closer to Jesus. Some of these people may be remembered by history, but most won’t. And that’s okay. They—and you—are all important in God’s plan for building his kingdom. “Thank you, Lord, for the people who have guided me to you!”6
Friar Jude Winkler shares the message of the author of Ephesians about the foundation of our faith built on the apostles. The Temple of Christ is the Mystical Body of Christ. Friar Jude reminds us that Luke identifies 11 times that Jesus prayed for discernment.
An article in Franciscan Media comments that as in the case of all the apostles except for Peter, James and John, we are faced with men who are really unknown, and we are struck by the fact that their holiness is simply taken to be a gift of Christ.
He chose some unlikely people: a former Zealot, a former (crooked) tax collector, an impetuous fisherman, two “sons of thunder,” and a man named Judas Iscariot. It is a reminder that we cannot receive too often. Holiness does not depend on human merit, culture, personality, effort, or achievement. It is entirely God’s creation and gift. God needs no Zealots to bring about the kingdom by force. Jude, like all the saints, is the saint of the impossible: Only God can create his divine life in human beings. And God wills to do so, for all of us.7
Cynthia Bourgeault comments that we have been trained to think that the purpose of stillness is to lead us to “pure contemplation,” long regarded in mystical theology as a highly exalted state. But here Thomas Keating turns the table on traditional theology; in a dynamically interactive universe the purpose of contemplation is to lead us beyond all stages, states, and roadmaps—beyond empty silence and stillness—into that great, flowing oneness which is our own true nature and the true nature of all that is. Thomas himself specifically comments on this point:
The contemplative state is established when contemplative prayer moves from being an experience or series of experiences to an abiding state of consciousness. The contemplative state enables one to rest and act at the same time because one is rooted in the source of both rest and action. [2]8
The people chosen by Jesus as the Twelve were gifted by the Spirit that is available to guide our journey as His disciples.
References
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