＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

 Ephesians 2: 19-22

 Now you are no longer strangers or guests, but fellow citizens of the holy people:

you are of the household of God. You are the house   whose foundations are the apostles and proph­­­ets, and whose cornerstone is Christ Jesus. In him the whole structure is joined together and rises to be a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you too are being built to become the spiritual sanctuary of God.

 

Ps 19  Their message goes out chrough all the earth.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

 Luke 6: 12-16

 

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.

 

Reflection gospel：

“WHEN DAY CAME, HE CALLED HIS DISCIPLES TO HIM.”

When I applied to the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), the interviewer from the Vocation Office asked me, “Why do you want to become an SVD?” I said that I wanted to become a missionary.

He inquired further, “Why?” I reasoned that I wanted to give witness to the goodness of God, to help and be one with the great missionary work of the Church to bring Jesus to the world. After a few weeks I received a notice of acceptance. But I’m not sure if my answers did the work.

The church remembers today two apostles who were great missionaries, St. Simon the Zealot, and St. Jude son of James. Their feast is jointly celebrated most probably because in the roster of apostles they are listed one after the other, and because both ended up In Persia in their missionary journey where they met martyrdom in the 1st century.

We should not miss to admire their exemplary missionary character; they spent every ounce of their strength to preach Jesus. All of us Christ’s faithful are called to be missionaries. The world is a big mission field. But we do not need to go far to do this task. Right in our own backyards, in our own homes and communities, we can preach Jesus.