“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…”

Jesus’ Calling of His Disciples, These men are far from perfect, Jesus chose very ordinary men.

Lord, I am here, Send Me Lord.
I realise he has also chosen me. “Come. Follow Me,”

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

1 Corinthians 6:1-11

When you have a complaint

Against a brother, how dare you bring it before pagan judges instead of bringing it before God’s people? Do you not know that you shall one day judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you incapable of judging such simple problems?

Do you not know that we will even judge the angels? And could you not decide every day affairs? But when you have ordinary cases to be judged, you bring them before those who are of no account in the Church! Shame on you! Is there not even one among you wise enough to be the arbiter among believers?

But no. One of you brings a suit against another one, and files that suit before unbelievers. It is already a failure that you have suits against each other. Why do you not rather suffer wrong and receive some damage? But no. You wrong and injure others, and those are your brothers and sisters. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God?

Make no mistake about it: those who lead sexually immoral lives, or worship idols, or who are adulterers, perverts, sodomites, or thieves, exploiters, drunkards, gossips or embezzlers will not inherit the kingdom of heav­en. Some of you were like that, but you have been cleansed and consecrated to God and have been set right with God by the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God.

 

Ps 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a & 9b

The Lord takes delight in his people.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

 Luke 6:12-19

At this time Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God.  When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them whom he called apostles:   Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John; Philip and Bartho­lo­mew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.

 Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood on a level place. Many of his disciples were there and a large crowd of people who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Si­don.  

They gathered to hear him and be healed of their diseases; likewise people troubled by evil spirits were healed.  The entire crowd tried to touch him because of the power that went out from him and healed them all.

 

Gospel Reflection：

Did Jesus Well?

There are times when I have prayed hard before taking certain decisions that mattered most, only to realize later that they have “ backfired” and left me wondering if I made my decisions correctly.

I am sure you would have had similar experiences as well. Today’s passage should put us at ease. Even Jesus’ own decision to choose the apostles, arrived after a whole night of prayer, seems to have “backfired” with the choice of Judas.

In our” common sense” we wonder if Jesus couldn’t have chosen better! However, in the “gospel-sense”, we know that it was all part of the grand design of God, and Jesus’ decisions, arrived at after hours of prayer, were perfectly in alignment with God’s will.

It must console us: if we have arrived at decisions after sincere efforts at discerning God’s will and hours of prayer, even when they are seemingly disastrous, we can rest assured that our decisions are safe within the grand design of God.