＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Romans 10:9-18

 You are saved if you confess with your lips

That Jesus is Lord and in your heart you believe that God raised him from the dead.   By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; by confessing the faith with your lips you are saved.  For Scripture says: No one who believes in him will be ashamed.  

Here there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord, who is very generous with whoever calls on him.  Truly, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

 But how can they call upon the name of the Lord without having believed in him? And how can they believe in him without having first heard about him? And how will they hear about him if no one preaches about him?  And how will they preach about him if no one sends them?

As Scripture says: How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news.   Al­though not everyone obeyed the good news, as Isaiah said: Lord, who has believed in our preaching?   So, faith comes from preaching, and preach­­ing is rooted in the word of Christ.

 I ask: Have the Jews not heard? But of course they have. Because the voice of those preaching resounded all over the earth and their voice was heard to the ends of the world.

 

Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11

The Judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊   

Matthew 4:18-22

 As Jesus walked by the lake of Ga­lilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.   He said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”

 At once they left their nets and followed him.  He went on from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them.  At once they left the boat and their father and followed him.

 

 Gospel Reflection：

After spending some time in prayer, Jesus decides to recruit the first batch of disciples. The Twelve will be chosen among these batch. One peculiar thing about this recruitment is that Jesus did not seek the learned and those who already have established a reputation.

He recruited fishermen. It is a counter intuitive style of recrulitment. That is why the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law will later be peeved at this obvious snob of their group.

They feel they deserve more than the rag tag of fishermen, revolutionaries, tax collectors and the likes that Jesus recruited to be in the company of the Teacher. Whatever reasons Jesus has, it is obvious that He has chosen well.

Although one of them will betray Him later on, the eleven stood their ground and remained faithful till the end.