Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to 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.
The calling
1. Prayer. Before Jesus makes an important decision in his life and for his life, such as choosing the people who will be at his side, He prays. He takes his time in prayer. Before making a decision, you too, should pray, talk to God, ask him for signs, ask him to help you, and to show you with inner peace if what you’re doing is right and if the people you choose at your side are the right people who will help you to fulfil your mission. Jesus selects others to help fulfil his mission, as we need a community and cannot accomplish everything alone. Today, in your prayer I invite you to ask God, in your own words, to put the right person at your side, at the right time, and to remind you that you can’t handle everything on your own.
2. Their names. The mention of the disciples’ names reminds us that we matter to God, because we are not a number for Him, we are someone whom He values greatly. We are worth a lot to Him. We should follow Jesus’s example by making people around us feel valued, listening attentively, putting our phone away during conversations, and checking in on those who are struggling. In short, make the other person feel unique.
3. People. We will always have work to do because there are, and there will always be, many human needs. But remember that you must do what you can, because if you try to solve everything and save everyone, you won’t succeed, and you’ll probably end up feeling completely burned out. Take care of yourself and take care of your time. I’ve also learned this as a priest, because in the face of so many things, so much exhausting activity, one tends to forget about oneself. But you come to realize that all this is God’s and that you contribute with your life and your smile. Let God be God and you be his worker, a servant of the Savior. Because you do what you can, and God does what you can’t do.
Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and be with you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
