Chosen for a Mission
Today’s Gospel reading puts us at the scene of the selection of the twelve Apostles from the crowd of people following Jesus. We know that Jesus was in dialogue with his Father prior to this action. We know the choices were the will of the Father. They were the result of the call to mission and not personal preference or predilection. How did the Twelve respond to this? Did they rejoice to see who had been called? Did they say, “Why him?” or “Why me?” Were there tensions between them or did they become friends? Scripture does not say anything here about the Apostles other than to indicate that Judas Iscariot became a traitor. We do not know how things worked out between them.
Strangers and Sojourners
We also are called to a mission in the Church and we may have to work with people we would not choose, even people we may profoundly dislike. How do we deal with this? The Apostles had to come to a shared sense of mission. How do we come to this, especially when we feel that we are strangers to each other? We come from different backgrounds, have different cultural heritages and different familial patterns. We often cannot imagine how someone could think a certain way or hold a certain belief. We tend to think, “Why isn’t he or she more like me?”
Calling the Disciples to Himself
The Apostles did share some things. Clearly, they loved Jesus and had all heeded the call to follow Him. Scripture recounts that they also shared a lack of understanding about the mission until they were given the gift of the Holy Spirit while they were “together in one place” on Pentecost. Our conversions are usually not the dramatic ones in which people hear us speaking in their own language or demonstrating a boldness that was not seen before. But we would do well to remember that the Holy Spirit comes to us in many subtle ways if we remain awake and alert. It is also helpful to recall that Jesus calls us all to mission and that we have this in common with others, even as we share our love for God in the Trinity. Humility helps and Cardinal Merry del Val’s litany reminds us to pray, “From the fear of being wronged, deliver me, O Jesus.” May Jesus deliver us from all that blocks us from seeing our common mission in Him.
