Our Call

Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Ps 119 (118):137, 124 You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right; treat your servant in accord with your merciful love.

Collect O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters, that those who believe in Christ may receive true freedom and an everlasting inheritance. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11; Psalm 149; 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. (Luke 6:12-19)

Our Gospel scene today is situated in the context of several disputes with the religious leaders, healings of the afflicted, Christ teaching in towns, houses and synagogues, and the special call of various of his disciples such as Simon, James and John (chapters 5 and 6). The summons to Levi (Matthew) is specifically mentioned, followed by the feast in Levi’s house attended by many ‘publicans and sinners,’ as the Pharisees called them. Christ was calling certain individuals, others were gathering around him and were becoming disciples, and there were the crowds following and in attendance. In our passage today Luke refers to these groups: there are “a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people.” So the disciples are of a considerable number — a “multitude” of them. These are in greater attendance on Jesus than the crowds and have chosen to learn from him. They are drawn to his person and teaching and manifest various levels of commitment to him. We read elsewhere in the Gospels that Jesus sent seventy-two out ahead of him in pairs to prepare the people for his coming by their preaching. We read in the Gospel of St John that many disciples abandoned our Lord precisely over his teaching — it was his teaching on the Eucharist that led to their walk-out. But others were faithful. For instance, we read in the Letters of St Paul that five hundred of the brethren witnessed the risen Jesus on one occasion. They were disciples who had been faithful to him, though doubtlessly to varying degrees and in different ways. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were among the rulers of the Jews, but secretly. Martha, Mary and Lazarus all from the one family, were disciples and dear friends of Jesus, though not, it seems, actively engaged with him in his mission. Matthias had been a disciple of our Lord from the beginning, and he was chosen to replace Judas as one of the Twelve. So Christ had many disciples, and there was the crowd that followed along. Well now, in which group are we?

A new stage in our Lord’s work had been reached. The crowds were flocking to him — and that would wax and wane. There were many disciples, and several had been personally summoned by our Lord to follow him. This they did — though some refused. One instance of a refusal was the rich young man. He came to our Lord with his question about how to get to heaven. After their initial dialogue, our Lord looked on him and loved him. He then invited him to leave all and follow him. But he refused and went off home, sad. There may have been others, but many were following our Lord. So our Lord now moves to begin the decisive work of building his Church which would be the bearer and the beginning of the Kingdom. The foundation stones had to be selected. New patriarchs had to be gathered around him to share his friendship and his life, and to be the basis of the new chosen people, the Kingdom. So serious was this that he spent the whole night in prayer to God — we do not read of this process happening in any other call. For instance, several passages before our text of today, our Lord goes out of the house, catches sight of Levi, and calls him to follow him (5:27). It is a simple invitation, and Levi immediately responds. It is the same with Simon, James and John (5:11). We are not told if, say, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, were among the disciples because of Christ’s personal invitation to them, or whether it was due to their own decision to have him for their Master. Whatever be the personal path of this or that disciple within the concourse of his disciples, Christ now makes a supremely formal call to some of them. Of course, there is never a mistake with Christ. He formally selects certain of them to be members of the Twelve. Imagine his hand falling on Judas. There was no mistake. Judas had the calling to be an Apostle of Christ, one of the Twelve, a great saint. He had been led by the grace of God through his youth to the point of his meeting with Jesus Christ. Christ knew and loved him personally, and selected him above numerous others. What an honour! What a unique trust, to be one of the very Twelve.

Some have taught that ultimately our destiny is determined. I think this is maintained in order to preserve the doctrine of God’s sovereignty. How could God be sovereign if, contrary to his will, someone were to be damned? But no. Judas was destined by God to be a great saint. That was the divine plan. Christ deliberately chose him to be one of the Twelve. What promise he must have had — with, of course, his faults too. But how badly he turned out! He was an unspeakably grave disappointment to our Lord. Each of us is called, just as Simon Peter, Levi, and Judas were called. Let us live up to our God-given promise, and not make the Holy Spirit sad.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection: (Luke 6:12-19)

Christ's Choice In this pivotal passage (Luke 6: 12-19) St Luke tells us of our Lord at prayer all night long to his heavenly Father. He was preparing to establish his Church and to choose its foundations — the Twelve Apostles. We can only imagine the care and love he put into that choice, reflecting as it did the choice of the Father. It was the choice of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There could be no mistake about it. As we think of that choice, we ought think of the choice he has made of each of us. St Paul tells us that before the world began God chose us, chose us in Christ to be holy and full of love in his sight. We are called each of us by name. We can imagine our Lord calling each of the Twelve, and calling each of them by name. From all eternity they too had been chosen, as have we. Christ gave the Apostles a work to do. They were to be his ambassadors, his "apostles". They were to be sent out by him to represent him and to do his work.

Each of us in our own way and according to our vocation is called to be an ambassador for Christ. Each of us is called to be another Christ by the transforming power of his grace, doing his work in and through our own work. Let us sanctify our work, thus sanctifying ourselves and others in the process, and being apostles in fact.

(E.J.Tyler)

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